Grant: Operating Grant

The cell is a complex machine made of many interacting parts. Parts include proteins, encoded by genes in the genome, and other molecules, like fats and sugars. The goal of this research is to develop a map of how parts of the cell work together. This map can then be used to learn how genes function in cellular processes and what happens when specific genes fail in disease, such as cancer, heart disease and autism. With this information, researchers can better understand the underlying causes of disease in their quest to develop more timely diagnosis and better medical treatments. Immediate benefits of this research include new advances in Canadian biomedical science, more efficient use of Canadian research resources, due to the public availability of software to predict protein interactions, and an increased pool of highly qualified personnel (HQP) in the nationally underrepresented fields of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. Longer term benefits to Canada from better understanding of cell regulatory networks include the potential for improved medical treatments that will extend the comfortable life of Canadians.