Welcome to the Homepage of the GenoMik-Plus Networks

Introduction

The significant shortage of resources and energy, the rising need for food, and the further strain on the environment by the anthropogenic entry of pollutants, are global trends that have greatly affected the world-wide situation in the past years in the areas of health, nutrition, and environment. Furthermore, infections threaten the human health and their treatment is becoming less effective and more expensive due to the increasing proliferation of antibiotic resistances. A timely development of strategies is required to address these emerging problems. Microorganisms play a major role, causing 17 million infection casualties annually. Additionally, they cause an immense economical damage in the agricultural flora and fauna. On the other hand, researching and using microorganisms offers the opportunity to counter the aforementioned trends. Likewise, they provide the chance to create new solutions for the public health, securing new resources for staple food, preventing and removing environmental damage, and establishing an economy with lower energy and resource requirements.

GenoMik Programme (2001-2006)

Starting in 2001, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) founded the funding and research initiative "Genome research on microorganisms - GenoMik". This created a sound base for using the potential of microorganisms by a global genome-based research. For this purpose, three networks of competence were created. These were coordinated by the universities of Bielefeld, Göttingen, and Würzburg and focused on the following topics respectively:

• Genome Research on Bacteria Relevant for Agriculture, Environment, and Biotechnology (Bielefeld University)
• Genome Research on Bacteria with Focus on Biodiversity and Their Potential for New Production Processes (Göttingen University)
• Genome Research on Pathogenic Bacteria (Würzburg University)

In the years 2001 to 2006, the funding time of the GenoMik project, 30 genomes of bacteria of scientific, clinical, and economical interest were sequenced and analysed. This research resulted in applications developed in collaboration with health institutes and companies.

GenoMik-Plus Programme (2006-2009)

The BMBF continues to finance the funding initiative "GenoMik-Plus" for the years 2006 to 2009. An international jury selected three networks for funding, namely:

• "Functional Genome Research on Bacteria Relevant for Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology" (Bielefeld University)
• "BiotechGenoMik - from Genomes to Functions to Products" (Göttingen University)
• "PathoGenoMik-Plus" (Würzburg University)

The backbone of "GenoMik-Plus" is a so-called Technology Platform for Genome-research on Microbes (TPMG). This platform will offer services for all collaborators of the "GenoMik-Plus" network. The service centres reside at three universities and focus on following service areas:

• DNA-Sequencing and Annotation (Göttingen University)
• Bioinformatics (Bielefeld University)
• Proteome-Analysis (Greifswald University)

Companies from various industries (i.e. chemical, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries, and biotechnology companies) have founded a "network for genome-research on microbes". This network of industries will collaborate with the "GenoMik-Plus" network in order to have a central contact representing the involved industries. The network will coordinate requests and activities as well as establishing technology transfers for the development of applications of research results. Additionally, the network will be involved in the coordination of research on a European level.

Links to BMBF financed genome-research programmes:

• FUGATO - Functional Genome Analysis of Animals
• GABI - Genome Analysis of the Plant Biological System
• NGFN - National Network of Genome Research

Publisher's details

Dr. Werner Selbitschka

Bielefeld University
Department of Biology
33594 Bielefeld
Germany

Telephone: +49-(0)521-106-5604
Fax: +49-(0)521-106-5626

Disclaimer

The author is not responsible for any contents linked or referred to from his pages - unless he has full knowledge of illegal contents and would be able to prevent the visitors of his site from viewing those pages. If any damage occurs by the use of information presented there, only the author of the respective pages might be liable, not the one who has linked to these pages.