Studies suggest that whole-genome sequencing can be done more quickly and cheaply, offering fast diagnoses that can save ailing babies. While genetic diseases pose the single biggest source of infant mortality in the U.S., many of these disorders are so rare and little understood that an accurate diagnosis can take weeks or months.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant of over $34 million to the Scripps Translational Science Institute to apply digital and genomic technologies to health care. The five-year grant is the third Clinical and Translational Science Award the NIH has awarded to the institute, part of The Scripps Research Institute.