$12 million grant extends funding for Center for Mendelian Genomics

Yale will receive a $12 million, four-year federal grant that extends funding for the Yale Center for Mendelian Genomics.

The grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) support four centers nationally where researchers study rare, inherited disorders often caused by mutations of a single gene.  Since the program was established in 2011 by the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute, scientists have analyzed genomes of more than 20,000 individuals and identified more than 740 genes that cause disease.

“Rare diseases provide an important window into the biology of both rare and common diseases,” said Lu Wang, director of the program.

Principal investigators for the Yale center are Richard Lifton, Murat Gunel, Shrikant Mane, and Mark Gerstein. 

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute provides an additional $8 million in funding and the National Eye Institute an added $1 million.