NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – GenoSpace has been awarded a $137,000 Phase I Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health that it will use to add new capabilities to its bioinformatics offering.
Specifically, the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm will use the funds to extend its GenoSpace for Research population analytics platform to support advanced data management and analysis, and study design for biomedical research samples stored in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Center for Genetic Studies Biobank. The resulting GenoSpace for Biobanks platform "would provide a framework for expanded access to resources in other biorepositories," the company said.
These biorepositories "are essential resources for investigating the molecular basis of disease," Mick Correll, CTO and COO of GenoSpace and principal investigator of the project, noted in a statement. "Maximizing their value requires sophisticated software systems that can provide access to the combined genomic and phenotypic information associated with the banked samples and can enable complex analyses to search for genetic and multi-omic correlations with clinically relevant endpoints."
"Our tools will provide a platform for more efficient study design and post-study data collection and analysis," he said. "We are tremendously excited about this award and the opportunity to adapt our platform to add substantial value to these important resources."