The National Institutes of Health has awarded $55 million in funds for a collaborative research effort that aims to help individuals prevent and cure disease through precision medicine.NIH said Wednesday the cohort program under President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative will engage a million volunteers in the U.S. to submit their health, environment and lifestyle data.
The participants will also contribute ideas to the study design and implementation and have access to various individual and collective study findings.
The awards are intended to establish a data and research support center, participant technologies center and a healthcare provider network in coordination with various organizations.
“This range of information at the scale of 1 million people from all walks of life will be an unprecedented resource for researchers working to understand all of the factors that influence health and disease,†said Francis Collins, NIH director.
Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic received an award in May to build the PMI Cohort Program biobank, which will work to collect, analyze and store biological samples and the laboratory data will be combined with the lifestyle and health information submitted by volunteers.
