The eye is a complex system of highly differentiated tissues of various developmental origins. Many genes essential for eye function are tissue-specific and many of those known are associated with genetic eye diseases. The majority of human expressed genes are known only through expressed sequence tags (ESTs). A project called NEIBank was begun to improve the EST coverage and to develop a molecular encyclopedia for the eye (http://neibank.nei.nih.gov). Many human eye (and also ear) tissues and those of important animal models have now been analyzed. Recent additions include human optic nerve, zebrafish cornea and rhesus monkey and cow lens. The human DNA resource generated by this work has been used to create cDNA microarrays with 13,000 non-redundant human eye expressed sequences and 6500 sequences from mouse eye. A powerful addition to the informatics tools for eye research is EyeBrowse, a dedicated genome browser for eye-expressed genes, produced in collaboration with CIT. http://eyebrowse.cit.nih.gov/genome/; a database for known human eye disease genes and a new tool to compare expression patterns of different tissues and species. In addition, NEIBank now incorporates data from the EyeSAGE project (Duke U) with a custom genome browser track for human eye-derived SAGE data. Another addition is a comprehensive database of human eye disease genes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Intramural Research (Z01)
Project #
1Z01EY000320-08
Application #
7322284
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
U.S. National Eye Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code
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Rabinowitz, Yaron S; Dong, Lijin; Wistow, Graeme (2005) Gene expression profile studies of human keratoconus cornea for NEIBank: a novel cornea-expressed gene and the absence of transcripts for aquaporin 5. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 46:1239-46
Ozyildirim, Aylin M; Wistow, Graeme J; Gao, James et al. (2005) The lacrimal gland transcriptome is an unusually rich source of rare and poorly characterized gene transcripts. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 46:1572-80

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