Genia Technologies has announced, as part of a research consortium with Columbia University and Harvard Medical School, it has received a Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies—The $1,000 Genome grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the NIH.  The grant, $5.25 million for three years, will be used in collaboration with investigators at Columbia and Harvard to further develop Genia's nanopore-based DNA sequencing platform that allows for single molecule, electrical, real-time analysis.  

The companies were jointly awarded the grant from the latest NHGRI initiative, which distributed approximately $17 million under its Advanced DNA Sequencing Technology program to eight research teams developing technology aimed at driving down the cost of DNA sequencing. The majority of the funded projects, five of eight, focus on methods and technology related to nanopore-based sequencing.

Stefan Roever, chief executive officer of Genia said, "Our nanopore-based platform, which combines proprietary integrated circuits and the NanoTag chemistry, is designed to move sequencing into the clinic by enabling real-time detection with limited sample preparation and no amplification to produce faster and more accurateresults."

Genia's NanoTag sequencing technology combines Genia's standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit, Columbia's unique Tag-based sequencing chemistry and Harvard's novel nanopore protein constructs. The low cost and ease of use make the NanoTag approach configurable to a wide spectrum of diagnostic applications.

Consortium leader Dr. Jingyue Ju, the Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele professor of engineering at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, said, "Our research and development efforts in DNA sequencing technologies have been generously supported by the NIH for over a decade. This new NHGRI grant provides tremendous timely support for our consortium to develop the NanoTag single molecule electronic DNA sequencing approach into a robust miniaturized platform that will eventually allow the entire human genome to be deciphered for $100. The enhanced accuracy, scalability and flexibility of this technology make it ideal for use in widespread clinical care."