NIH announced Sept. 25 that it is doling out three grants totaling more than $25 million over four years to support a national genomic sequencing database project, with the goal of advancing treatment for diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.
Three research teams will receive grants of more than $8 million each to study genomic variants in medical care and establish the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen), which will act as a repository for genetic variants that could have an impact on how physicians test for and treat diseases. Researchers will evaluate which variants are linked to diseases or relevant to patient care in some way. The grants are funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
"There are about 2,000 separate databases on specific genes and diseases," Lisa Brooks, director of the Genetic Variation Program in the NHGRI Division of Genome Sciences, said in a release. "We expect that this central effort partnered with ClinVar will make this information more easily available and widely used."
In the release, NHGRI said the project will help lay down standards for determining which genomic variants are clinically relevant and to make that information available to the public as well as the research and clinical communities.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Library of Medicine will distribute the findings of these research projects through its ClinVar database.
- here's the press release