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Prometheus Research Awarded $700K to Extend Autism Database

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Prometheus Research has been awarded a $700,000 Phase I grant by the National Institutes of Health's Small Business Innovation Research program to extend its Open Source Research Exchange Database, RexDB, a resource that supports research into autism spectrum disorders.

According to Leon Rozenblit, Prometheus' CEO and the project's principal investigator, RexDB supports data collection, warehousing, and sharing activities in several multidisciplinary academic research studies.

For example, a previous incarnation of RexDB was used in an autism study conducted by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative called the Simons Simplex Collection. In that study, a dozen universities across North America collected and analyzed data from over 2,700 families that had at least one child affected by autism. The resulting genetic and phenotypic repository, known as SFARI Base, also relies on RexDB technology.

"This Phase I grant will enable smaller labs and clinics to also leverage RexDB by funding the development of novel self-service technologies," Rozenblit said in a statement.

Collaborating with Prometheus on the current grant are the Yale University Child Study Center, the Marcus Autism Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, the University of Missouri Thompson Center, and others.

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