NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Partek today said that it and the Kennedy Krieger Institute have been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop commercial software that would identify chromosomal abnormalities underlying conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
St. Louis-based Partek and Baltimore-based Kennedy Krieger Institute had previously collaborated on developing a mathematical method that combined two commonly used genotype association approaches to reveal genetic distinctions between individuals. They now plan to leverage that research and narrow their focus to families with one or more members affected by ASD.
Their initial goal is to identify individuals with ASD during infancy, but they also plan to use the same analysis tools for early diagnosis of mental health conditions including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Further terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.