Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101033

Funded Activity Summary

Genomic Diversity in the Human Brain: the Functional Role of Expandable DNA Repeats. Neuronal cells accumulate genetic changes during development and adult life, and recent evidence suggests that the resulting genomic diversity may underlie neuronal functional diversity. To date only a few types of somatic genetic variation have been characterised in the human brain. Trinucleotide repeats (TNR) are hotspots of genomic instability and TNR expansions at specific loci cause dozens of brain disorders, suggesting that the human brain is particularly vulnerable to this type of genetic variation. This project aims to investigate, for the first time, TNR somatic instability in the human brain on a genome-wide scale, therefore, addressing the genetic diversity of the brain from a novel and highly relevant angle.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2014

End Date: 31-12-2016

Funding Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

Funding Amount: $315,220.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Gene Expression (incl. Microarray and other genome-wide approaches) | Genome Structure and Regulation | Neurogenetics | Genetics

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Nervous System and Disorders | Neurodegenerative Disorders Related to Ageing | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |

Other Keywords

Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Gene Expression (incl. Microarray and other genome-wide approaches) | Genetics | Genome Structure and Regulation | Nervous System and Disorders | Neurodegenerative Disorders Related to Ageing | Neurogenetics

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