Dear Collegues in the Schisto Research Community,
As you may already know, WHO-TDR which has supported the Schistosoma Genome
Initiative for the past 5.5 years, has recently been reorganised. As part
of this reorganisation, the Parasite Genome Steering Committtee has changed
its remit to "Functional Genomics" and also merged with the Pathogenesis
Committee. At the same time, other funding agencies are starting to express
interest in large scale genomics for schisto.
In order that both genomic and post genomic work continues to attract
funding from WHO and these other agencies, it is vital that the Schisto
Genome Network is able to demonstrate that the data it has generated (and
that which it aims to generate through any new applications) is / will be
of value to the wider research community. Consequently, we are attempting
to formally quantify the use and impact of the schistosome genome data
Specifically, we are interested in establishing the following 5 pieces of
imformation:
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SURVEY OF UTILISATION OF SCHISTOSOMA GENOME DATA
1. How many papers have resulted from use of the schistosome genome data,
both published and in press? - please send numbers and, if possible, the
citations
2. How many grant proposals, both unsucessful submissions and funded ones,
(to any agency) have resulted from use of schistosome genome data? - please
send number of applications and, if you are willing, funding agency, names
of collaborating labs on each grant and value
3. Who has received clones from contributors to the schistosome genome
network and how many clones have been received? - please send numbers, we
do not need to know clone / gene identity.
4. Who has received reagents (eg libraries, BACs, library screening, FISH
mapping) or services (installed SchistoDB, used the cluster data, had help
with specific informatics queries etc) from the Network? - please include
number of times.
5. Who has used the schistosome genome data to design PCR primers and
isolate genes from their own libraries / material without requesting the
source clone from Network members? - please send the numbers, we do not
need to know clone / gene identity. The Network believes that this occurs
regularly and we are quite happy for it to occur (after all, that is why
the data is all in the public domain), however, as it is rarely reported to
us, we cannot report the (potentially major) scale of this usage to the
funding agencies without carrying out a survey such as this.
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This information is important to demonstrate to the funding agencies who
will support genomic/post genomic research, that the data generated will be
of value.
Please email your answers to me (daj at nhm.ac.uk). All individual replies
will be treated in strictest confidence, but summary statistics will be
produced and put on the Schisto WWW site and sent to funding agencies.
We would also request that such reporting occurs whenever you exploit the
data in the future, so that we can maintain an ongoing demonstration of the
value of the data.
Thank you, in advance, for your co-operation.
David.
David A. Johnston,
Secretary to the WHO Schistosoma Genome Network,
Biomedical Parasitology Division,
Dept. of Zoology,
The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England, UK.
***PLEASE NOTE NEW PHONE / FAX NUMBERS***
Tel: 020-7942-5566/5008/5152
Fax: 020-7942-5347
(from outside the UK: 44-20-7942 ****)
***PLEASE NOTE NEW PHONE / FAX NUMBERS***
eMail daj at nhm.ac.ukhttp://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/schisto/
The Biomedical Parasitology Division is a WHO Collaborating Centre for the
identification of schistosomes and their snail hosts.
