NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – New England Biolabs announced Thursday that it has received a $640,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand its research into development of enzymatic tools for epigenetic analysis.
The Ipswich, Mass.-based company said it has focused on using restriction enzymes in epigenetic studies for years, and research into methylation-dependent and methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes has resulted in new tools for identifying such DNA modifications. The grant announced today will enable additional research into this area, resulting in "a deeper understanding of epigenetic marks in the mammalian genome."
In 2010 New England Biolabs received an SBIR grant for $1.2 million for research into and the development of enzymatic reagents for epigenetics. It said today that it has received more than $1.1 million in SBIR funds since 2009.