UNC researchers have received a four-year $6.4 million grant to fund genome research.
The grant — from the National Institutes of Human Genome Research Institute — will establish an effort called North Carolina Clinical Genomic Evaluation by NextGen Exome Sequencing (NCGENES).
The project will consider the recent advances in the genetics field that have made it possible to affordably gather a complete sequence of an individual’s DNA.
The project will look at ways health care professionals can use genome sequencing in a clinical setting.
Dr. James Evans, a professor of genetics in UNC’s School of Medicine, is the leader of the project.
He said the team will sequence all of the genes in about 750 patients in order to evaluate how best to use DNA sequencing technology.
There are 3 billion DNA building blocks in a human genome.
