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Genomenon Wins $1.7M NIH SBIR Grant to Accelerate Variant Interpretation

NEW YORK – Genomenon said Tuesday that it has received a $1.7 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health's Small Business Innovation Research program to accelerate development of the firm's variant interpretation engine.

Genomenon, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said that the grant will help it advance its long-term vision of curating the entire human genome through its artificial intelligence-based Mastermind Genomic Search Engine. Mastermind allows clinicians to index genomic variants from scientific publications to help diagnose patients suffering from rare and genetic diseases. The firm offers a freemium model that it said makes the engine available to a broad range of scientists, academics, and clinicians.

"Having already curated more than 250 genes for rare diseases and cancer, this NIH funding allows us to accelerate the pace of genetic interpretation for our AI-driven curation engine, which is a crucial first step in a process that enables targeted and efficient use of expert human curators," CEO Mike Klein said in a statement.

"Next-generation sequencing gives us the ability to quickly and efficiently create a large amount of genomic data," Klein added. "Curating the entire genome for meaning and actionability at scale is the next step in the evolution of using this information to improve patient care."

The new grant comes on top of $5.3 million in venture capital financing that Genomenon raised a year ago.

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