The National Human Genome Research Institute has granted tens of millions of dollars to three major sequencing centers: The Broad Institute Sequencing Platform of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University; The Washington University Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University School of Medicine; and the Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine. They'll be assisting the Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project, which is attempting to systematically catalog the genetic causes of cancer.
Genomic sequencing has already made a substantial impact on both biological and medical research," said Dr. Francis Collins, NHGRI director. "A major focus of the next phase will be medical sequencing, which involves using sequencing technologies to identify genes that contribute to common human diseases, most of which have so far eluded gene hunters."
- here's the UPI report on the grants