Roadmap


roadmap [名] 道路地図、行程表、計画図、指針、手引き

先日私の勤務しているNIHのdirectorから、NIH roadmapなるものがe-mailで送られてきました。NIHの新しい地図かと思ったら、NIHの今後の計画でした。次の5つのエリアが次の10年の主要な到達すべき分野になるようです。1. Microbiome (人の体内にいるバクテリアやウイルスなど微小生物と人の健康との関わりを調べる分野）、2. Protein Capture/Proteome Tools（個々のタンパクではなく、タンパク質群がどのような挙動を示しているのかを調べ、病気の指標を知り、薬剤ターゲットを見つける分野）、3. Phenotyping Services and Tools (個人の差が何に由来するのか研究し、複雑な病気を理解するための分野)、4. Inflammation as a Common Mechanism of Disease（病気の一般的なメカニズムとしての炎症を理解する分野。ある種の癌も慢性化した炎症が活性酸素などを作り出し重要な遺伝子に傷がつき、細胞の制御がきかなくなった状態である事に由来します。） 、5. Epigenetics（エピジェネティックスを理解する分野。DNAの配列は遺伝情報をコードしていてそれは生涯変わりませんが、DNAは後天的な修飾を受けてDNAにコードされている遺伝子の発現状況は変わります。この後天的な変化をエピジェネティックスと呼びます。癌とエピジェネティックスな変化が関わっている事は有名です。ある種の病気もエピジェネティックスな変化が原因となります。）

Read More に詳しい説明を載せました。

Five areas were selected to be developed as Major Roadmap Initiative Proposals:

Microbiome: The Microbiome is the full collection of microbes (bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.) that naturally exist within the human body. Initiatives in this area would focus on developing a deeper understanding of these communities of microbes in order to determine how they affect human health.

Protein Capture/Proteome Tools: The Proteome is the complete set of proteins in the body. Efforts in this area would support developing and making available to the scientific community high quality probes specific to every protein in the human and in desired animal models. This would allow the ability to characterize protein function in health and disease and to monitor the markers of a disease in order to deploy early prevention efforts and to identify potential therapeutic targets.

Phenotyping Services and Tools: A human Phenotype is the total physical appearance and constitution of a person, often determined by multiple genes and influenced by environmental interactions. Initiatives in this area would encourage the development of resources to systematically catalog human phenotypes in an effort to characterize complex diseases and disorders.

Inflammation as a Common Mechanism of Disease: While significant breakthroughs have occurred in our understanding of inflammation, research is needed to further understand inflammatory processes. Because inflammation is broadly implicated in many diseases and conditions, this initiative would be valuable in uncovering as-yet-unknown immune mechanisms and mediators of inflammation as well as genetic factors, environmental triggers, and the relationship of inflammation to disease.

Epigenetics: Epigenetics is the study of stable genetic modifications that result in changes in gene expression and function without a corresponding alteration in DNA sequence. The epigenome is a catalog of the epigenetic modifications that occur in the genome. Epigenetic changes have been associated with disease, but further progress requires the development of better methods to detect the modifications and a clearer understanding of factors that drive these changes.

Posted: 金 - 2月 16, 2007 at 09:16 午後          

©