biology

Influenza Genome Sequencing Project

Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Influenza Genome Sequencing Project rather than just read about it. In short: The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project (IGSP), initiated in early 2004, seeks to investigate influenza evolution by providing a public data set of complete influenza genome sequences from collections of isolates representing diverse species distributions. The project is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and has been op…

Key takeaways

Influenza Genome Sequencing Project belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Influenza Genome Sequencing Project to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Influenza Genome Sequencing Project from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project (IGSP), initiated in early 2004, seeks to investigate influenza evolution by providing a public data set of complete influenza genome sequences from collections of isolates representing diverse species distributions. The project is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and has been operating out of the NIAID Microbial Sequencing Center at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, which in 2006 became The Venter Institute). Sequence information generated by the project has been continually placed into the public domain through GenBank.

Origins In late 2003, David Lipman, Lone Simonsen, Steven Salzberg, and a consortium of other scientists wrote a proposal to begin sequencing large numbers of influenza viruses at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). Prior to this project, only a handful of flu genomes were publicly available. Their proposal was approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and would later become the IGSP. New technology development led by Elodie Ghedin began at TIGR later that year, and the first publication describing > 100 influenza genomes appeared in 2005 in the journal Nature

Research goals The project makes all sequence data publicly available through GenBank, an international, NIH-funded, searchable online database. This research helps to provide international researchers with the information needed to develop new vaccines, therapies and diagnostics, as well as improve understanding of the overall molecular evolution of Influenza and other genetic factors that determine their virulence. Such knowledge could not only help mitigate the impact of annual influenza epidemics, but could also improve scientific knowledge of the emergence of pandemic influenza viruses.

Results The project completed its first genomes in March 2005 and has rapidly accelerated since. By mid-2008, over 3000 isolates had been completely sequenced from influenza viruses that are endemic in human ("human flu") avian ("bird flu") and swine ("swine flu") populations, including many strains of H3N2 (human), H1N1 (human), and H5N1 (avian).

Affiliations The project is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) which is a component of the NIH, which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The IGSP has expanded to include a growing list of collaborators, who have contributed both expertise and valuable collections of influenza isolates. Key early contributors included Peter Palese of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, Jill Taylor of the Wadsworth Center at the New York State Department of Health, Lance Jennings of Canterbury Health Laboratories (New Zealand), Jeff Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (who later moved to NIH), Richard Slemons of Ohio State University and Rob Webster of St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2006 the project was joined by Ilaria Capua of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (in Italy), who contributed a valuable collection of avian flu isolates (including multiple H5N1 strains). Some of these avian isolates were described in a publication in Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2007. Nancy Cox from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Robert Couch from Baylor College of Medicine also joined the project in 2006, contributing over 150 influenza B isolates. The project began prospective studies of the 2007 influenza season with collaborators Florence Bourgeois and Kenneth Mandl of Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard School of Public Health and Laurel Edelman of Surveillance Data Inc.

References

External links Influenza Sequencing Project home page at JCVI Influenza Genome Sequencing Project home page at NIAID Influenza virus resource at NCBI (NIH) Fauci AS (January 2006). "Pandemic influenza threat and preparedness". Emerging Infect. Dis. 12 (1): 73–7. doi:10.3201/eid1201.050983. PMC 3291399. PMID 16494721. Influenza Research Database Database of influenza sequences and related information.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Influenza Genome Sequencing Project

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Influenza Genome Sequencing Project claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Influenza Genome Sequencing Project before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Influenza Genome Sequencing Project ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Influenza Genome Sequencing Project

In research: Influenza Genome Sequencing Project appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Influenza Genome Sequencing Project in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Genome projects, Influenza, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Influenza Genome Sequencing Project outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Influenza Genome Sequencing Project in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Influenza Genome Sequencing Project means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Influenza Genome Sequencing Project out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Influenza Genome Sequencing Project in simple terms?

Why does Influenza Genome Sequencing Project matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Influenza Genome Sequencing Project?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Influenza Genome Sequencing Project.