NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The National Institutes of Health announced today that it has awarded $14.5 million to eight groups developing new sequencing technologies.

The funding is part of the National Human Genome Research Institute's Advanced DNA Sequencing Technology program, which began in 2004 with the goal of driving down the cost of sequencing. The grants, which total $4.5 million in the first year, will support a range of techniques, including nanopore sequencing technology and microfluidics, and will fund efforts over two to four years.