NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Sanford Health and Nicklaus Children's Hospital have announced a new collaboration to sequence the genes of nearly 1,000 Latino and Hispanic individuals in an effort to better understand the health needs of these populations.
Supporting the launch of the project, philanthropist Denny Sanford and Sanford Health have jointly given $7 million to the Nicklaus Children's Personalized Medicine Initiative in Miami.
According to the new partners, the funding will support genomic sequencing of Hispanic or Latino pediatric patients and their families at Nicklaus. Researchers hope to use these sequencing results to uncover gene variants that potentially contribute to predisposition for certain diseases or predict response to particular medications.
The hospital hopes to begin to build a database of common variants and patterns of disease association in these underrepresented populations, something that is currently lacking in genomic medicine.
"This generous gift allows us to progress our personalized medicine initiative faster and fill a critical need in genetics. As one of the only personalized medicine programs solely focused on children, this gift will enhance our ability to serve our unique South Florida population and advance care for children throughout Latin America and the world," Narendra Kini, CEO of Miami Children's Health System, said in a statement.
"Bringing these two organizations together will help Sanford diversify its work and research with genomic medicine," Sanford Health President and CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft, added.