24 May ‘All of Us’ Research Program issues funding announcement for genome centers

Applications are due July 12, 2018

The All of Us Research Program has recently issued a funding announcement for Genome Centers to generate genotype and whole genome sequence data from participants’ biosamples. Information produced from the Genome Centers will become a critical component in the program’s precision medicine research platform, a national resource for investigators working on a variety of important health questions.

This funding announcement is an important step in the program’s larger research effort. Additionally, the All of Us Research Program is planning a pilot study in coming months on the responsible return of genetic information to participants, which will include education and genetic counseling, as part of the program’s commitment to make all participant data available to participants themselves. More details about the pilot study will be available as plans develop.

The program anticipates funding up to two Genome Center awards in FY2018, with analyses to begin this fall. Applicants may request funds to generate and analyze genotype data from 100,000 participants in the first year while beginning to also employ whole genome sequencing methods. In remaining years of the anticipated five-year project period, applicants may request funds for whole genome sequencing for as many as 200,000 participants annually.

Applications will be evaluated on teams’ technical approach, plans to scale up operations, capabilities to operate a clinical validation laboratory (to verify medically-relevant variants in certain genes), experience, past performance, and cost proposal, and on other considerations related to programmatic priority.

Applications are due on July 12, 2018, by 5:00 p.m. EDT.

For full details, please see the funding announcement, All of Us Research Program Genome Centers (OT2) (PDF)

– Reposted from the National Institutes of Health