The University of Miami received $80 million from the state of Florida to expand its genetics research institute on Feb. 1, the Associated Press reported. Created last year, the Institute for Human Genomics studies how to detect, treat and prevent human disease using the human genome. The money will add some 300 new positions in research and technology within the university’s Miller School of Medicine.
Husband and wife geneticists Margaret A. Pericak-Vance and Jeffery M. Vance, co-founders of the institute, moved from Duke University to Miami in January 2007. They brought with them more than 80 researchers, who study humans’ susceptibility to diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and autism.