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VA Awards Akesogen $7.5M to Genotype US Military Veterans

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Akesogen today announced the US Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded the company a five-year, $7.5 million contract to genotype samples from US military veterans as part of the Million Veteran Program.

In the first year of the contract, Akesogen, a genomics and biorepository firm based in Norcross, Ga., will use a custom designed array-based genotyping product from Affymetrix to genotype 105,000 veterans, it said.

The Million Veteran Program was launched in 2011 in order to uncover the genetic basis of diseases with the aim of improving the health of those who have served in the US armed forces, as well as the larger population. More than 240,000 veterans have enrolled in the program to date, and during the next five to six years, up to 1 million veterans are anticipated to enroll in the VA study, Akesogen said.

In the fall, the VA also awarded a five-year $7.5 million contract to the BioProcessing Solutions Alliance to genotype 100,000 DNA samples from US veterans for the Million Veteran Program, as BioArray News reported. Affymetrix's arrays are also being used for research as part of that contract.

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