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21 March 2006

Scottish Institutions Join Network of Excellence

Scottish scientists are to form part of a European-wide "Network of Excellence" in research into a key area of genetic regulation, which links to an ever-growing list of diseases including certain types of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

Research teams led by Professor Angus Lamond in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, Professor John Brown at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Professor Jean Beggs at the University of Edinburgh and Dr Javier Caceres at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, are among 30 laboratories from 11 European countries and Israel and Argentina who will make up the network, aimed at delivering a better understanding of the problem of "alternative splicing".

Alternative splicing is the name for a process by which a single gene can give rise to different proteins and different functions. Defects in the control of alternative splicing frequently cause, or exacerbate, pathological conditions and link to many diseases including various cancers and neurodegenerative conditions.

The Network of Excellence aims to understand the complex regulation of alternative splicing and the consequences, in terms of disease, of any defects or break down in regulation. New treatments to correct defects in splicing are already being pioneered around the world and the new knowledge generated by the Network will ultimately lead to further applications which impact on human health.

The Network will integrate wide-ranging expertise from different organisms. "One of the really exciting aspects of this Network is the bringing together of research, ideas and approaches from different organisms - the four Scottish labs study human, nematode, plant and yeast systems - to address a hugely important area of biology" said Professor Brown of SCRI.

Professor Beggs added "This Network will facilitate collaborations and the sharing of resources between the different laboratories involved, allowing faster progress to be made and greater challenges to be tackled."

The 10million Euro project is being funded by the European Union, and between them the Scottish laboratories can expect to receive at least 800,000 Euros of that central funding.

The co-ordinated approach will allow sharing and exchange of information and technologies. To sustain future research the Network will support young scientists in setting up research labs in alternative splicing and will be active in communicating the importance of alternative splicing to policy makers, the general public and the scientific and medical communities.

For further information see: http://www.eurasnet.info/index.shtml.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Under the co-ordination of Prof. Reinhard Lührmann (Department of Cellular Biochemistry) at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, thirty research groups working on gaining a better understanding of the problem of alternative splicing have joined forces to form an international consortium that is supported with 10 million Euros in research funds from the EU. The "Network of Excellence" known by the acronym EURASNET (European Alternative Splicing Network) has set itself four major goals:

  • Implementation of a collective research programme for the elucidation of the mechanisms of alternative splicing and of the relationship between the spliceosome and the other regulatory processes of gene expression. This will embrace a wide spectrum of methodological approaches, including biochemical, molecular-genetic and system-biological methods and will also incorporate clinical approaches.
  • The establishment of a communication platform for the exchange of information, methods and material among the network partners.
  • Support for ten "Young Investigators" who are establishing new research groups. This initiative is intended to support research careers in Europe.
  • Dissemination of results through conferences, workshops, lectures and the strengthening of contact with other RNA networks, with hospitals and with research-oriented industrial companies.

The EURASNET programme began on January 1st, 2006. The consortium includes 30 research laboratories from 11 European countries and also from Israel and Argentina. The financial support from the European Union amounts to 10 million and will be spread over five years.

For more information contact:


Roddy Isles
Head of Press
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk