> Doesn't NIH cover the genome sequencing if its an unexplained illness?
No, they don't. And it wouldn't make sense for them to do that either. There isn't much value to that clinically (sequencing is highly unlikely to reveal a new treatment pathway - there's only a handful of specific mutations for which we have specific treatments - cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, PKU, hemophilia, etc.) or from a research perspective. (Research answers a hypothesis driven question; usually that means you have a particular clinical syndrome and a theory about how it arises. Randomly turning over stones in search of something with out any clear idea of what you're looking for is essentially distributed p hacking and unlikely to lead to anything except for wild goose chases after statistical noise.)
Are you referring to this [1] program? If so, they have a very specific list of diseases that they are sequencing for. It's not open season for any unexplained symptoms.
(And how you would rigorously define unexplained if you don't have a particular syndrome in mind is a whole other can of worms)
It's not like anyone can just apply. It looks like sequencing is open to any NIAD participant, people who might fit specific diseases, or based on collaboration with other researchers on a case by case basis. It doesn't seem like they're that picky when they've sequenced over 100k people already.
No, they don't. And it wouldn't make sense for them to do that either. There isn't much value to that clinically (sequencing is highly unlikely to reveal a new treatment pathway - there's only a handful of specific mutations for which we have specific treatments - cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, PKU, hemophilia, etc.) or from a research perspective. (Research answers a hypothesis driven question; usually that means you have a particular clinical syndrome and a theory about how it arises. Randomly turning over stones in search of something with out any clear idea of what you're looking for is essentially distributed p hacking and unlikely to lead to anything except for wild goose chases after statistical noise.)
Are you referring to this [1] program? If so, they have a very specific list of diseases that they are sequencing for. It's not open season for any unexplained symptoms.
(And how you would rigorously define unexplained if you don't have a particular syndrome in mind is a whole other can of worms)
[1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-genome-seq...