Scalable tests to quickly study how gene variants affect biology
Official title: Development of scalable methods for rapid phenotyping and functional testing of variants
Funded at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation · NIH-11380724 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A research project to speed up how we study genetic variants and how they affect biology using zebrafish and new genome editing tools.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Oklahoma City, United States) |
| Project start | July 15, 2024 |
| Project end | June 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $616,207 |
| NIH project number | 5R24OD034438-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11380724 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Not applicable to patient participants for this grant; the work is methodological and based on model organisms and genetic tools.
✕Less likely to help
Patients would not participate directly in this project, and there is no recruitment of patients in the described aims.
What this research studies
Researchers will build a fast, high-throughput pipeline to study gene variants in zebrafish, using CRISPR/Cas9 to create knockouts and base editors for precise mutations. The work aims to link candidate human disease genes to how they influence biology and disease outcomes, by testing many variants in parallel. This could help identify which alterations are likely to contribute to disease and how they might be targeted. The project spans developing methods, validating their accuracy, and applying them to a broad set of candidate genes.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could accelerate understanding of how genetic variants contribute to human diseases and guide future therapeutic strategies.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work shows that high-throughput zebrafish models and CRISPR-based editing can illuminate gene function relevant to human disease.
Where this research is happening
-
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Oklahoma City, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Varshney, Gaurav K — Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
- Study coordinator: Varshney, Gaurav K
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.