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NIH to Fund Kids First Research Program Sequencing Centers

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The National Institutes of Health announced that it is seeking one or two sequencing centers to generate genomic and other data from patient samples for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Program.

The program was launched by President Barack Obama in 2014 to advance research on pediatric cancer and structural birth defects through the creation of a genomic and phenotypic data resource — overseen by the the Kids First Data Resource Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia — for the medical community.

In 2016, the Broad Institute and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, in collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, won three-year grants to produce the genome, exome, and transcriptome sequences and called variant data sets from patient samples submitted by Kids First-affiliated researchers.

With those awards set to expire next year, the NIH has reissued its call for applications from centers interested in generating whole-genome sequence data and variant data on childhood cancer and structural birth defects cohorts selected for the Kids First program.

The NIH said it intends to provide the centers with $8 million in funding per year during fiscal years 2019 to 2021. Additional details can be found here

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