NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cofactor Genomics said on Thursday it has won a contract from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute to identify sites of epigenetic modifications that contribute to cardiovascular disease endpoints.
A spokesman for the St. Louis-based firm said the contract is for $300,000.
Cofactor's work will be directed at identifying modifications contributing to events such as resistant hypertension and coronary calcification and will be carried out across a large cohort, it said, adding the research supports the goals of the NHGRI/Division of Intramural Research Cardiovascular Disease Section and NHGRI/DIR Social Epidemiology Research Unit (SERU).
Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, have been implicated in cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, and may be used as an early biomarker of disease because they are present before lesions are observed. Cofactor said that its research represents "an essential component of the NHGRI/DIR [SERU] study aimed at in-depth cardiovascular phenoyping."
Last month, the company said it won a $161,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a circular RNA enrichment kit.