Genomenon Wins $1.8M NIH Grant To Automatically Curate Genomic Literature

By Bio-IT World Staff

April 25, 2017 | Genomenon today announced a $1.8M grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The fast-track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, awarded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, will fund Genomenon's further innovation in genomic analysis, efficiently streamlining the laborious literature research and curation process leading to faster patient diagnosis.

"This grant recognizes the solid approach and great potential of Genomenon's technology to drive rapid improvements in automating accurate gene and variant curation" Genomenon co- founder and CSO Mark Kiel said in a statment.

Genomenon's initial product, Mastermind, is a novel analytic and data visualization tool that accelerates gene and variant curation by providing immediate insight into millions of scientific articles from the primary medical literature. The grant will help Genomenon in its quest to assemble the most comprehensive database of genomic knowledge ever created by expanding its Mastermind database with millions of additional articles covering genetic disease.

The funds for Phase I of this grant will be used to perform concordance testing between the Mastermind database and current gold-standard references of genomic knowledge. Phase II will focus on refining various applications using the Mastermind database including the development of ancillary software to inform patient diagnosis and research discovery.