BioNanomatrix awarded phase II NIH grant to support development of single-molecule nanoscale whole genome analyzer

BioNanomatrix, Inc. has announced receipt of a Phase II grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The grant is intended to support further commercial development of BioNanomatrix's nanoscale whole genome imaging and analysis platform. It follows the company's successful completion of work under a similar Phase I grant for initial development of the technology.

The 30-month $2.08 million Small Business Investment Research (SBIR) award was made under the BioEngineering Nanotechnology Initiative, an interdisciplinary, multi-institutes consortium with the stated goal of supporting the development of nanotechnologies critical for enabling essential breakthroughs that may have tremendous potential for affecting biomedicine.

"We are pleased that the NIH has again recognized the potential of our unique approach by awarding us this Phase II grant for the commercial development of our integrated nanoscale whole genome imaging and analysis platform," said Michael Boyce-Jacino, Ph.D., president and CEO of BioNanomatrix. "This additional funding will help support the commercial development of our potentially transformative technology."

Dr. Boyce-Jacino added, "BioNanomatrix's nanoscale technology is intended to allow researchers to directly image and analyze very long, individual intact strands of DNA at the single-molecule level with very high resolution, yielding a great deal of genomic information that is not currently accessible. We believe our technology has the potential to increase the utility of whole genome imaging and analysis for a wide range of research and diagnostic applications, and we are delighted at NHGRI's renewed vote of confidence in the potential of our program."

http://www.bionanomatrix.com/