The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT plans to slice 22 employees from its genomic sequencing workforce at the end of March. GenomeWeb and Boston.com reported that a drop in federal research funding is behind the move. Specifically, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is reducing its grant for three major centers. In addition to the 900-employee Broad Institute, the J. Craig Venter Institute and the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine will also experience a drop in funding from the NIAID, GenomeWeb said. The other two research centers are quoted as saying that the grant funding drops won't lead to layoffs, but the Broad Institute will slash research scientists and technicians from the payroll, according to the reports. News (reg. req.) | More