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Non-Coding Variants Program

The Non-Coding Variants Program (NoVa) supports the development of approaches to figure out which of the many variants in a region associated with a disease or trait functionally cause the higher risk for the disease or trait.

Overview

When the genomes of many people are sequenced, millions of sites in the genome differ among those people. Some of these genetic variants are common, such as the variants for blood types (A, B, AB, or O), while many of the variants are rare, seen in only a few people. Most of these variants do not affect disease risk, response to drugs or other traits such as height.

How can we figure out which variants affect the function and regulation of genes? A start to interpreting variation is a genome-wide association study (GWAS), in which the genomes of thousands of people with and without a disease or trait are compared to find the chromosomal regions that affect the disease risk or trait. In these regions, usually many variants are statistically associated with the disease or trait, but we do not know which one or few of the variants functionally affect the risk of disease or other traits.

Some variants are in the parts of the genome that code for proteins; the effects of these variants are not necessarily known, but the genetic code provides a good starting point to predict how the variants might affect protein function and thus underlie the disease or trait. However, most variants, including most of the functional ones that contribute to disease risk, are not in protein-coding regions. These functional variants generally affect the regulation of genes or chromosome structure; they occur in "switches" in the genome that determine when and where proteins are made.

The Non-Coding Variants Program (NoVa) supports the development of approaches to figure out which of the many variants in a region associated with a disease or trait (especially the variants not coding for proteins) functionally cause the higher risk for the disease or trait. This program supports computational methods to integrate many data sets related to gene and variant function, to predict which variants (or narrow the set of potential variants) cause differences in disease risk or other traits, and to assess experimentally the accuracy of these predictions.

Determining which variants cause the disease risk or trait will allow researchers to discover the mechanisms by which these variants lead to the increased disease risk or trait. Eventually, this understanding should allow researchers to develop approaches for prevention and therapies, as well as to make predictions about a person's risk of disease.

The six awards funded in the first round of this RFA use a range of approaches to study a variety of diseases as test cases. All the data used and produced will be released, to allow other researchers to compare methods.

  • Overview

    When the genomes of many people are sequenced, millions of sites in the genome differ among those people. Some of these genetic variants are common, such as the variants for blood types (A, B, AB, or O), while many of the variants are rare, seen in only a few people. Most of these variants do not affect disease risk, response to drugs or other traits such as height.

    How can we figure out which variants affect the function and regulation of genes? A start to interpreting variation is a genome-wide association study (GWAS), in which the genomes of thousands of people with and without a disease or trait are compared to find the chromosomal regions that affect the disease risk or trait. In these regions, usually many variants are statistically associated with the disease or trait, but we do not know which one or few of the variants functionally affect the risk of disease or other traits.

    Some variants are in the parts of the genome that code for proteins; the effects of these variants are not necessarily known, but the genetic code provides a good starting point to predict how the variants might affect protein function and thus underlie the disease or trait. However, most variants, including most of the functional ones that contribute to disease risk, are not in protein-coding regions. These functional variants generally affect the regulation of genes or chromosome structure; they occur in "switches" in the genome that determine when and where proteins are made.

    The Non-Coding Variants Program (NoVa) supports the development of approaches to figure out which of the many variants in a region associated with a disease or trait (especially the variants not coding for proteins) functionally cause the higher risk for the disease or trait. This program supports computational methods to integrate many data sets related to gene and variant function, to predict which variants (or narrow the set of potential variants) cause differences in disease risk or other traits, and to assess experimentally the accuracy of these predictions.

    Determining which variants cause the disease risk or trait will allow researchers to discover the mechanisms by which these variants lead to the increased disease risk or trait. Eventually, this understanding should allow researchers to develop approaches for prevention and therapies, as well as to make predictions about a person's risk of disease.

    The six awards funded in the first round of this RFA use a range of approaches to study a variety of diseases as test cases. All the data used and produced will be released, to allow other researchers to compare methods.

Grantees

Phase I Grantees

Hacohen Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Non-coding genetic variants that impact immune phenotypes and diseases R01 HG008131
Manolis Kellis Broad Institute of
MIT and Harvard
Interpreting non-coding variants using epigenomics, regulatory models, and validation R01 HG008155
Alain Laederach,
Kevin Weeks
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Predicting the causative SNPs in LD blocks by allele-specific structural analysis R01 HG008133
Stephen Montgomery Stanford University Predicting causal non-coding variants in a founder population R01 HG008150
Bing Ren Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego Non-coding variants predisposing to age-related macular degeneration R01 HG008135
Jay Shendure,
Gregory Cooper
University of Washington Integrative interpretation of the organismal consequences of non-coding variation R01 CA197139

 

Phase II Grantees

Mark Gerstein Yale University Prioritizing rare variants associated with cancer using non-coding annotation R01 HG008126
Gregory Gibson Georgia Institute of Technology eQTL mega-analysis for functional assessment of multi-enhancer gene regulation R01 HG008146
Yunlong Liu,
Todd Skaar
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis Regulation of mRNA splicing by intronic genetic variants R01 CA213466
Jonathan Pritchard Stanford University Integration of functional data and GWAS to elucidate genetic basis of disease R01 HG008140
Zhengdong Zhang Albert Einstein College of Medicine Interpreting human enhance variants with a network-regularized composite model R01 HG008153
  • Grantees

    Phase I Grantees

    Hacohen Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Non-coding genetic variants that impact immune phenotypes and diseases R01 HG008131
    Manolis Kellis Broad Institute of
    MIT and Harvard
    Interpreting non-coding variants using epigenomics, regulatory models, and validation R01 HG008155
    Alain Laederach,
    Kevin Weeks
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Predicting the causative SNPs in LD blocks by allele-specific structural analysis R01 HG008133
    Stephen Montgomery Stanford University Predicting causal non-coding variants in a founder population R01 HG008150
    Bing Ren Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego Non-coding variants predisposing to age-related macular degeneration R01 HG008135
    Jay Shendure,
    Gregory Cooper
    University of Washington Integrative interpretation of the organismal consequences of non-coding variation R01 CA197139

     

    Phase II Grantees

    Mark Gerstein Yale University Prioritizing rare variants associated with cancer using non-coding annotation R01 HG008126
    Gregory Gibson Georgia Institute of Technology eQTL mega-analysis for functional assessment of multi-enhancer gene regulation R01 HG008146
    Yunlong Liu,
    Todd Skaar
    Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis Regulation of mRNA splicing by intronic genetic variants R01 CA213466
    Jonathan Pritchard Stanford University Integration of functional data and GWAS to elucidate genetic basis of disease R01 HG008140
    Zhengdong Zhang Albert Einstein College of Medicine Interpreting human enhance variants with a network-regularized composite model R01 HG008153

Funding Opportunities

  • PA-13-302 Research Project Grant (Parent R01) (Expired)
    Expiration Date: May 10, 2016

Program Staff

Lisa Brooks
Lisa D. Brooks, Ph.D.
  • Volunteer
  • Division of Genome Sciences
Mike Pazin
Mike Pazin, Ph.D.
  • Program Director
  • Division of Genome Sciences