NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – RUCDR Infinite Biologics, a unit of the Rutgers Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey, has received a $19 million contract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to expand the service offerings it provides through the NIDA Center for Genetic Studies, the Rutgers Office of Research and Economic Development said today.
The center, which has received NIDA support for 15 years, provides a range of genomic analysis and testing services to NIDA-funded scientists studying the genetics of drug addiction. It also stores the clinical and diagnostic data, pedigree information, and biomaterials, such as DNA, plasma, lymphocytes, and cell lines, from human subjects participating in the NIDA Genetics Consortium.
"Under this new contract with NIDA, we will be utilizing innovative technologies to support research, such as microarray typing and high-throughput sequencing for genomic and epigenomic analyses," Jay Tischfield, CEO and founder of RUCDR Infinite Biologics and a professor of genetics at Rutgers, said in a statement. "We also will support NIDA projects that employ induced pluripotent stem cells to facilitate the molecular and cellular study of brain development and addiction processes."
Tischfield said the genomic testing and analysis it can provide for NIDA studies is significantly more sophisticated than it has been in previous years because RUCDR has been continuously buying new equipment and systems.
RUCDR has a similar agreement with the National Institute of Mental Health, which has provided $44.5 million to fund the NIMH Center for Collaborative Genomics Research on Mental Disorders over a five year-period. That funding was awarded last year.