Harvard-affiliated gene study receives NIH funding

Two Harvard Medical School (HMS) professors of ophthalmology are co-principal investigators of a gene project that has received funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lou Pasquale and Janey Wiggs, both glaucoma researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, are leading the grant-winning team of researchers that includes Vincent L. Gregory Professor in Cancer Prevention David Hunter of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Jae Hee Kang, an instructor in medicine. Theirs is the only Boston-led team to receive the competitive NIH award, which is being administered by the institute’s Genes, Environment & Health Initiative. Specifically, the award was granted to researchers for studies of the genetic factors underlying stroke, glaucoma, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, and other common disorders. The grantees will use a genome-wide association study to rapidly scan markers across the complete sets of DNA, or genomes, of large groups of people to find genetic variants associated with a particular disease, condition, or trait. The Harvard-affiliated group will receive approximately $850,000 for their research, “Genes and Environment Initiative in Glaucoma.”