Welcome to The River Blindness Genome Project Home Page

Funded by A. K. Watson Trust (1999-2003)

 

The River Blindness Genome Project (RBGP) is held in the Clark Science Center at Smith College. It is currently being funded by the A. K. Watson Trust (2000-2002) and directed by Dr. Steven A. Williams, Coordinator of the World Health Organization Filarial Genome Project, Gates Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Massachusetts.

Contact us | Overview of the RBGP | Recent publications | Related web sites

Go back home

Contact us:

Williams' Laboratory
Clark Science Center
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063, USA
FAX: 413 585 3952
TEL: 413 585 3857
EMAIL: genome@smith.edu

For more information about Onchocerca volvulus, the causing agent of River Blindness, visit OnchoNet:
www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/SWILLIAM/OnchoNet/OnchoNet.html

In 1995, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation funded Steven Williams' Laboratory to initiate a Genome Project on the nematode parasite Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of River Blindness. Before the River Blindness Genome Project (RBGP), less than 50 genes were represented in GenBank for this parasite. Hence, the RBGP has focused on new gene discovery through the construction of cDNA libraries from many life cycle stages of O. volvulus.

Over 14 600 randomly selected cDNA clones have been sequenced from these libraries for expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis. According to TIGR, the Institute for Genome Research, these cDNA clones represent 4208 protein encoding genes (available at the Onchocerca volvulus Gene Index (OvGI)). The products of these genes can be now evaluated as vaccine candidates or drug targets in order to develop a product that would eliminate the disease. As a reminder, onchocerciasis is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, affecting over 18 million people.

• The River Blindness Genome Project. S.A. Williams, S.J. Laney, M. Lizotte-Waniewski, L.A. Bierwert, and T.R. Unnasch. Trends in Parasitology, 18: 86-90, 2002.

• The Genomes of Onchocerca volvulus. T.R. Unnasch and S.A. Williams. Int. J. Parasitol, 30: 543-552, 2000.

• Onchocerca volvulus Gene Index (OvGI) from the Institute for Genomic Research.

• Nembase, a custom database of expressed sequence tags from a number of parasitic nematode taxa, maintained by the Blaxter lab in Edinburgh.

• OnchoNet Bookmarks: connections to other filarial and parasite related web resources.