National Institutes Of Health Launches $9 Million Genetic Testing Center At UC Davis
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Felicia Alvarez
Photo: UC Davis and the National Institutes of Health are launching a new center to focus on genetic testing tools. (VCHAL)
The federal government’s medical research agency is launching a new center to develop genetic editing tools with the University of California Davis.
The National Institutes of Health is funding the new center with a $9 million grant announced Monday. Those dollars are earmarked for primate research projects to improve the safety and efficacy of genetic editing tools. The new center has been dubbed the UC Davis Nonhuman Primate Testing Center for Evaluation of Somatic Cell Genome Editing Tools.
The NIH said the new center is part of the institutes’ ongoing initiative to treat as many diseases as possible. The new center will be focused on perfecting genetic testing for disease-causing DNA in nonhuman primates, for eventual use in human patients. Much of the research is enabled in part by CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which makes it possible to change the DNA code inside of living cells, according to the NIH.
The partnership also allows UC Davis to be the NIH-designated facility for research institutions around the country to test their genome-editing tools as they ramp up for eventual applications in human patients, according to the university.
The new center is set to work closely with the university’s California National Primate Research Center, located outside of Davis, as well as university research in both Davis and Sacramento. The Primate Research Center is also funded by NIH.
“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to advance translational research that will one day enable the treatment of a range of human diseases,” said Alice Tarantal, a UC Davis School of Medicine professor who has been tapped to lead the new center.
It is not clear whether the new center will provide opportunities for partnerships or collaborations with the private sector, UC Davis Health spokesman Charles Casey said.