Johns Hopkins CIDR receives NIH contract to study genetic diseases

Aug 13 2012

The Johns Hopkins Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) program contract, which provides up to $101 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the genetic contribution to human diseases, has been renewed for another five years.

"We are thrilled the NIH has awarded us this contract," says Kimberly Doheny, Ph.D., lead principal investigator of CIDR. "The bulk of the contract support allows us to generate sequencing or genotyping datasets for an average of 30 large genetic studies per year. A separate component of the contract supports the center's infrastructure, including the exploration of new technologies and the extensive IT infrastructure necessary to serve new data-intensive methods, like high-throughput genomic technologies."

CIDR, part of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins, is a national resource for genetics researchers. Established in 1996, the center performs DNA genotyping and sequencing to identify genes linked to disease. CIDR also offers statistical genetics consultation to investigators. Researchers at CIDR thus far have analyzed over 620,000 DNA samples and identified genes associated with cancer, addiction, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease and many other genetic diseases.

Doheny, along with David Valle, M.D., Henry J. Knott Professor and director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine, and Alan Scott, Ph.D., will serve as the co-principal investigators of the center.

"CIDR's main goal is to support the genetics community - a large group of molecular geneticists and bioinformaticians - in their efforts to find genes that contribute to disease," says Valle. "We share our expertise with the Johns Hopkins community and offer fee-for-service access to our facility to all investigators."

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine