Penn researchers received $1.7 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to organize and share the database resources on parasite genomes.
David Roos, the E. Otis Kendall Biology professor, will lead this project.
According to Roos, scientists have accumulated a large amount of genomic data. He pointed out that the greatest challenge was to consider how to make use of this information.
"In what may be considered the greatest period of scientific data acquisition in history, improving our understanding of any organism . depends on our ability to sort through mountains of data," Roos said in a press release.
The genome resources on parasites were first accumulated about 10 years ago for Roos' own research purposes.
The funds from the foundation will help in organizing Roos' genome database, which deals with different kinds of parasites.
These parasites can cause fatal diseases, such as malaria, leishmaniasis, African sleeping sickness, and Chagas' disease.
Roos hopes the database will be useful in answering the questions of other researchers around the world.
"Having a vast amount of information, we will develop tools that allow people to explore genomic datasets that are relevant to malaria," Roos said.
He said he also hopes that the database will have practical application, such as advancing drug discovery on malaria.
"Providing such information to investigators worldwide has been cited as the single highest priority by the community of scientists working to develop new drugs targeting these parasites," Roos added in the press release.
Besides the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health have also funded the expansion of other similar databases.
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