Parabricks Awarded Competitive Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Science Foundation

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and SAN DIEGO, Oct. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Parabricks^tm has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant for $748,104 to commercialize innovative technology by conducting research and development (R&D) work to greatly accelerate secondary genomics processing and analysis using graphics processing units (GPUs). The Michigan Emerging Technologies Fund matched the grant with $125,000 to support commercialization efforts. The company will present its latest product advancements at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Annual Meeting October 16-20 in San Diego, California.

Parabricks is developing high performance GPU-based software solutions for higher throughput, lower cost next generation sequencing data analysis, the foundation for precision medicine. The Parabricks technology accelerates secondary data analysis from days to less than 1 hour while simultaneously reducing cost and generating fully equivalent output. Its customizable, high performance computing techniques are focused on the industry-leading genomic analysis tools such as GATK4. This funding will support expansion of technical capabilities,  producing a turn-key solution for researchers and clinicians.

"The National Science Foundation supports small businesses with the most innovative, cutting-edge ideas that have the potential to become great commercial successes and make huge societal impacts," said Barry Johnson, Director of Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. "We hope that this seed funding will spark solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time across all areas of science and technology."

"This award will significantly advance Parabricks' efforts to expand on the development completed in Phase I, and allow the company to commercialize a broad portfolio of software solutions including deep-learning based analysis for researchers and clinicians using genetic information in their work," said Dr. Mehrzad Samadi, Parabricks CEO and Co-Founder. "By providing faster results at significantly lower cost, Parabricks is enabling community to analyze large data sets, which was a challenge before."

Small businesses can receive up to $1.5 million in funding from NSF. Companies must first have received a Phase I award (up to $225,000) to become eligible to apply for a Phase II grant (up to $750,000) to further develop and commercialize the technology. Small businesses with Phase II grants are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales.

About the National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs: America's Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards nearly $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funds to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America's Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $7.5 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To learn more about the NSF SBIR/STTR program, visit: seedfund.nsf.gov.

About Parabricks:
Parabricks provides high performance GPU-based software solutions for analysis of next generation sequencing data, resulting in high throughput at reduced costs compared to other available solutions?in the cloud or on-premise. Parabricks brings proprietary high performance computing techniques to accelerate the data analysis process of the industry-leading genomic pipelines--from days to less than one hour and reduces cost? generating fully equivalent and accurate output. Parabricks software can integrate seamlessly with deep learning techniques, statistical packages and visualization tools, leading to faster data insights. For more information, please visit www.parabricks.com or contact Parabricks at [email protected].

SOURCE Parabricks