MTU and Others Receive Lab Expansion Funding from MDHHS, and CDC

Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services is distributing 18.5 million dollars between four Michigan universities, after receiving a grant from the CDC. The epidemiology and laboratory expansion grant will provided funding for U of M, MSU, Wayne State and Michigan Tech to expand genome sequence testing for a variety of illnesses. The expansion of such a lab at MTU will allow genome testing to take place here, rather than Upper Peninsula health departments having to send samples to the state lab in Lansing. The primary goal for the funding will increase testing capabilities at each institution for Covid at first. Michigan has led the country in genome sequencing, gathering 25,000 genomes a year from bacterial and viral organisms.