By KRWG News
Los Alamos, New Mexico – LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (KRWG) Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be getting a financial boost as they work to unravel the secrets of how many human genes function.
The lab's bioscience division has been awarded a grant worth more than $4 million from the National Institutes of Health for the Antibody Library Project.
One way to expose a gene's function is to take the protein it produces and generate specific antibodies. That's usually done by vaccinating mice or rabbits.
The researchers aim to develop an automated pipeline to generate antibodies without using animals. Instead, they will use "antibody libraries" expressed in bacteria and baker's yeast.
By looking at antibodies, the researchers can identify where in a cell genes are active and under what conditions they increase or decrease their expression.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. KRWG