NIH has awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant worth $640,000 to New England Biolabs (NEB) to support the development of new enzymes useful for epigenetic studies.
The grant will allow the company to advance the restriction enzyme research and usage in epigenetic studies.
NEB research director Dr. Bill Jack said the company couples its basic research with the development of new tools for molecular biology.
"The repository of knowledge, generated during the almost four decades of restriction endonuclease study at NEB, has fueled a discovery program that has radically expanded the utility of restriction endonucleases and activity on a variety of DNA templates, including those created by epigenetic modification," Dr. Jack added.
"We are committed to continuing this discovery process, and to use these novel new enzymes to uncover the role of epigenetic modification during development, differentiation and disease."
The MspJI family of restriction enzymes with the potential to cut methylated DNA fragments for use in epigenetics studies was discovered by NEB.
