Centre for Functional Genomics and Human Disease

The key focus of the Centre for Functional Genomics and Human Disease is to identify the role of genes in the causation of human disease. Our goals are to understand the normal functions of gene products, the molecular mechanisms by which they function and the mechanisms whereby altered gene function is involved in disease. This work will facilitate the development of markers of disease and identify targets and strategies for therapeutic intervention. The Centre, led by Professor Paul Hertzog, represents a group of scientists with a collective multidisciplinary expertise in genetics, molecular, cellular and developmental biology, pathology, neurobiology, immunology and transgenic techniques for generating gene knockout and transgenic mice.

With the advent of DNA microarray technologies it is now possible to examine the consequences of genetic changes on the whole animal. We are using our genetically modified mouse models of disease and interrogating the global changes in gene composition or expression in physiological and pathological states. The outcome of these experiments will be the identification of genes that are involved in the progression of the disease. This capacity to identify potential disease causing genes can then be used to pick targets for rational therapeutic drug design.

The work at the Centre covers a number of areas including the genetics of cancer; determination of the genes causing brain, heart and bone defects; the role of genes in inflammation and in fighting infection and developing immunity; and the genetics of neurodegeneration