The National Institutes of Health awarded $10 million to University of Alabama at Birmingham and Oxford-based University of Mississippi in collaboration with HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a nonprofit research organization, to advance genome sequencing research.
The four-year grant will initiate the Clinical Sequencing Across Communities in the Deep South project, which is part of HudsonAlpha's nationwide project called Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research Consortium. This project will investigate how genome sequencing can help diagnose babies with birth defects or genetic disorders.
The project will be lead by Greg Cooper, PhD, and Greg Barsh, MD, PhD, both investigators at HudsonAlpha, along with Bruce Korf, MD, PhD, professor and chair of UAB Department of Genetics.
"These regional partnerships improve our ability to help children and their families by providing a genetic diagnosis as early as possible," said Dr. Barsh, who brings 20 years of experience as a medical geneticist to the project.