The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor has been awarded almost $6 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support research efforts.
Joyce Peterson is spokeswoman for Jackson Laboratory, which is internationally known for developing mice used in biomedical research. She says the lion’s share of the money, almost $5 million, will support Jackson Lab’s Mouse Genome Database, which she says facilitates the use of the laboratory mouse.
“Mice and humans share the vast majority of their genes, something like 95 percent of genes are identical in mouse and humans,” she says. “They’re organized differently on the chromosomes, but nevertheless there’s a counterpart for every human gene in the mouse, and the mouse therefore is a terrific experimental platform for understanding human biology and disease.”
Jackson Laboratory also received $800,000 from the National Cancer Institute for electronic access to data to facilitate cancer biology research. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development has awarded the Bar Harbor facility $175,000 for postdoctoral training in developmental genetics to facilitate research for mothers and children.
