July 26, 2024- Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics are upgrading and expanding whole genome sequencing to more kids throughout the Intermountain West, thanks to a $9 million infusion to the Intermountain Primary Children’s Center for Personalized Medicine. The infusion, the largest in the center’s history, will be used to create “Primary Children’s Gene Kids,” a major genomics initiative to broaden access to genome sequencing for infants and children with genetic conditions. The genome result would be returned rapidly and become a life-long resource as the child’s “personal genome.”
Primary Children’s Gene Kids is made possible by a $4.5 million grant from The Warren Alpert Foundation, which was matched by generous philanthropic donations to Intermountain Health’s Primary Promise campaign to create the nation’s model health system for children.
More than 7,000 genetic diseases have been discovered, but few cures have been created, and many children with debilitating genetic diseases do not have a diagnosis.