Monday, July 25, 2016

NantHealth Links With University On Genetic Study

Culver City-based personalized healthcare developer NantHealth, which is led by biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, said this morning that it has partnered with the University of Utah, to analyze genomic profiles of a large number of individuals, to help in disease identification. According to NantHealth, the Heritage 1K Project study--which will study the genomic profiles of at least 1,000 individuals--is aimed at discovering the genetic causes of 25 rare and common diseases. NantHealth said it hopes its effort can identify the genetic causes of breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancers, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), chronic lymphocytic leukemia, autism, preterm birth, epilepsy, and other hereditary conditions. The University of Utah has a large database of genetic information linked into health histories across families, making it easier for genetics researchers to correlate genes with different diseases.

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