DNA sequencing tech funding announced

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The National Human Genome Research Institute Wednesday awarded more than $13 million to speed the development of DNA sequencing technology.

"There has been significant progress over the last several years to develop faster and more cost-effective sequencing technologies and we are committed to supporting these innovative efforts to benefit scientific labs and medical clinics," said NHGRI Director Francis Collins. "These technologies will eventually revolutionize the way that biomedical research and the practice of medicine are done."

Since 1990, the institute has invested approximately $380 million to develop and improve DNA sequencing technologies.

The investigators to be funded in the latest round of awards are: John Nelson of General Electric Global Research, J. Michael Ramsey of the University of North Carolina, Xiaohua Huang of the University of California-San Diego, Amit Meller of Boston University, Timothy Harris of the Helicos Biosciences Corp., Dmitri Vezenov of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Penn. Peiming Zhang of Arizona State University, Carlos Mastrangelo of Case Western Reserve University, Jens Gundlach of the University of Washington, Michael Metzker of the Baylor College of Medicine, and Steven Jeffrey Gordon of Intelligent Bio-Systems Inc.