3DGenome Project

3DGenome Project consortium members will develop state-of-the-art 3D light microscopy techniques, along with image processing and analysis tools to visualise DNA inside the cell. They will correlate the genome's 3D structure with the expression of specific genes in human, mice and drosophila cells. Using this range of model systems will help establish which aspects of the 3D genome structure have been conserved through evolution and which are most likely to play an important role in gene regulation.

The research program is conducted by a consortium of seven European partners and is coordinated by Roel van Driel of the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences of the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

The EU Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) for Research and Development (2002-2006) is one of the world's largest research programmes, with a budget of 17.5 billion Euros, of which around 3 billion Euros is available for life sciences research. Under the FP6, 2.2 million Euros have been awarded to the 3DGENOME-research program.