Baltimore Business Journal - by Julekha Dash Staff

The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Genome Sciences has won another round of grants from the National Institutes of Health, totaling $25 million.

The grants are part of an expansion of the Human Microbiome Project, a $140 million, five-year NIH project that is partially funded by the federal stimulus package.

The institute will conduct research on obesity and metabolic syndrome among the Amish, Crohn’s disease and a type of vaginal infection.

Located at the University of Maryland, Baltimore BioPark, the Institute of Genome Sciences is headed by renowned genome scientist and microbiologist Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett.

The Human Microbiome Project will investigate how microorganisms that live on the human body affect the human genome. The study aims to understand the association between these microorganisms and chronic diseases.

Earlier this month, the two-year-old research institute received a $20 million NIH grant to create a new genome center that will conduct research to help fight infectious diseases. The institute will use the funding to sequence and analyze the genomes of bioterrorism agents and disease outbreaks, such as swine flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.