BREWER – The Maine Institute of Human Genetics and Health has received a gift of $1 million from an anonymous donor, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems announced Wednesday.

The money will be used to support projects that promote collaboration among scientists in Maine, according to Janet Hock, director of the institute, which is a subsidiary of EMHS.

One project will use advanced technologies to examine tissues from human cancers as a way to help doctors determine if treatment was successful.

“We are especially interested in investigating lung cancer, where new treatments are needed for what is often an incurable condition because it is diagnosed too late,” Hock said in a prepared statement.

A second project will map cancer cases to the geography and history of environmental exposures in Maine.

“Any hot spots will help us identify where people may be most at risk for cancer progression,” said Hock.

The mapping project is a collaboration among scientists at the institute, The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, the University of Maine and the state.

The institute also plans to use funds from the donation in collaboration with UM in a study of the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in the siblings of children with cancer. The Supersibs! organization developed the drug-free intervention used in the study and will advise on the project.

“We are so grateful to this remarkable donor, whose generosity will advance the institute’s work at an important time,” said Michelle Hood, president and CEO of EMHS.

The institute was founded in 2005 in collaboration with The Jackson Lab and UM.

The goal of the collaboration is to improve health through research, develop new approaches to prevention and management of disease, especially in Maine’s rural communities, and attract new bioscience-based businesses to the state.

The institute is located at the Brewer Profession Center on the EMHS campus. For information, visit www.mainegenetics.org.