NGS Lab Grant Program

Five labs will be awarded resources
valued at more than $20,000 per lab
to facilitate the transition to comprehensive
NGS-based diagnostic tests.

Overview

GenomeQuest is sponsoring a grant program for genetic test labs upgrading to next generation sequencing (NGS) – in particular, labs seeking to consolidate multiple Sanger-based gene panel tests into a single, comprehensive NGS-based test.

As an example in the diagnosis of inherited deafness, the University of Iowa has consolidated over 20 Sanger-based gene-panels tests into a single NGS test.  They report this advance will reduce the total cost of a molecular diagnosis from $75,000 to under $2,000 and the total time from one year to five weeks.  More information is available at: www.genomequest.com/2011/06/gq-dx-iowa/.

The GenomeQuest grant for consolidated NGS-based molecular diagnostic tests, valued at more than $20K, will include all the software, annotation data, and compute infrastructure required to:

  • process and store patient NGS data
  • produce tailored diagnostic reports
  • perform follow-up research on individual and aggregated results

Prerequisites

  • Applicants must operate a medical diagnostic lab listed in genetests.org
  • Applicants must be committed to advancing to NGS-based testing

Timeline

  • December 1, 2011 : Application deadline
  • December 15, 2011 : Awards announced
  • January 3, 2012 : Test development begins