The Centre for Integrative Genetics (CIGENE) was formally established in 2003 and is hosted by the
Norwegian University of Life Sciences at campus Aas 30 km southeast of Oslo.
CIGENE aims to contribute to a deep causal understanding of complex genetic characters in fish, plants and animals for scientific and commercial exploitation based on an integrative genetics approach. As a core facility under the Norwegian Functional Genomics Programme (
FUGE), CIGENE is also responsible for providing a national service for detection, typing and interpretation of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms), and for systems-oriented computational biology.
Our ConceptThe search for principles and methodologies that link the behaviours of molecules (i.e. genes) to system characteristics and functions (i.e. phenotypes) has been the prime occupation of genetics for the last 100 years. We do not think it is appropriate to introduce new terms like systems biology, bioinformatics or computational biology to describe this endeavour. To pay due credit to the immense efforts and achievements of the genetics community, while at the same time recognizing that genetics is undergoing a dramatic transition, we have coined the term
integrative genetics.
