NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Bioinformatics software firm DNAStar said today it received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant in support of R&D aimed at expanding the company's sequence assembly and analysis software.
The grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute will be used by the Madison, Wis.-based firm to build out the capabilities of its software from broad research use to the clinical research market.
DNAStar said that the grant will be used in the second phase of a project that was funded in 2012. The amount being awarded to the company for the project is for $963,000 over two years, DNAStar VP and GM Tom Schwei told GenomeWeb Daily News.
"There is a growing trend to consider analyzing genomic information as part of clinical studies, whether retrospectively or prospectively," Schwei said in a statement. "Increasingly, clinical researchers are seeing that including a genomic component to clinical research can uncover key information that is critical in moving a study forward. … As part of this grant research program, we will be collaborating with clinicians on several cancer studies to ensure our software fully meets their needs.”