Genia Technologies receives $5M grant from NIH to develop nanopore-based DNA sequencing platform

Genia Technologies, Inc. today announced that the company, as part of a research consortium with Columbia University and Harvard Medical School, received a Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies – The $1,000 Genome grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (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.  This research consortium is led by Dr. Jingyue Ju, the Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele Professor of Engineering at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. 

Columbia, Harvard, and Genia were jointly awarded the largest 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, CEO of Genia commented, "Genia is very honored to be included in this grant from the NHGRI, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the researchers at Columbia and Harvard.  Our versatile 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 accurate results."

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.

Dr. Jingyue Ju commented, "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."

Dr. George Church, Professor of Genetics and the Principle Investigator for the research consortium at Harvard Medical School, commented, "This grant enables accelerated development of our NanoTag sequencing platform, our electronic, single molecule approach to DNA sequencing. The NIH Advanced DNA Sequencing Technology program has been an important development resource for revolutionary technologies, such as NanoTag, that continue to radically improve the accuracy and cost of DNA sequencing and thereby change the landscape of medical research and healthcare."

Source: Genia Technologies, Inc.