The Genetic Information Research Institute (GIRI) is a non-profit institution that was founded in 1994 by

Jerzy Jurka Jerzy Władysław Jurka (June 4, 1950 – July 19, 2014) was a Polish-American computational and molecular biologist. He served as the assistant director of research at the Linus Pauling Institute prior to founding the Genetic Information Resear ...

. The mission of the institute "is to understand biological processes which alter the genetic makeup of different organisms, as a basis for potential gene therapy and genome engineering techniques." The institute specializes in applying computer tools to analysis of DNA and

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

sequence information. GIRI develops and maintains Repbase Update, a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

of prototypic sequences representing repetitive DNA from different

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

species, and Repbase Reports, an electronic journal established in 2001. Repetitive DNA is primarily derived from transposable elements (TEs), which include DNA transposons belonging to around 20 superfamilies and retrotransposons that can also be sub-classified into subfamilies . The majority of known superfamilies of DNA transposons were discovered or co-discovered at GIRI, including

Helitron Helitron is a mixed choir operating in Tallinn and originally set up to cater to employees of Tondi Elektroonika. Of the employment-related choirs established during Soviet occupation of Estonia, Helitron was one of the most famous ones, and is ...

, ''Academ, Dada, Ginger, Kolobok, Novosib, Sola, Transib, Zator, PIF/Harbinger'' and ''Polinton/Maverick''. An ancient element from the ''Transib'' superfamily was identified as the evolutionary precursor of the

Recombination activating gene The recombination-activating genes (RAGs) encode parts of a protein complex that plays important roles in the rearrangement and recombination of the genes encoding immunoglobulin and T cell receptor molecules. There are two recombination-activa ...

. GIRI has hosted three international conferences devoted to the genomic impact of eukaryotic transposable elements.

References

External links

Official Website of the InstitutePublicationsScreening DNA or protein sequences against RepbaseAutomated classification of non-LTR retrotransposonsWay-Back Machine Archive of www.girinst.org
Genetics or genomics research institutions {{genetics-stub