Eccles Institute of Human Genetics at University of Utah

What Eccles Institute of Human Genetics at University of Utah does

The Department of Human Genetics, commonly known as the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, is an academic department within the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, founded in 1979 and based in Salt Lake City. Its mission is to uncover the genetic bases of health, disease, evolution, and development using combined experimental (zebrafish, mouse, human genetics) and computational genomics approaches. The department operates 20 tenure-line faculty labs, a PhD program in Human Genetics, postdoctoral training, and affiliated centers including the Center for Genomic Medicine, Utah Center for Genetic Discovery (UCGD), Utah Genetics Training Program (UGTP), and the Genetic Science Learning Center (now Stark Science Learning Center).

The department's principal outputs are research discoveries, trained scientists, freely distributed bioinformatics software (BEDTOOLS, GEMINI, LUMPY, MAKER, DeepMosaic, MosaicBase, PASM/MPAS, STRchive), and public-facing educational platforms (Learn.Genetics and Teach.Genetics) that have reached millions of students and educators globally. It holds distinctive assets including access to the Utah Population Database and the Utah Genome Project, a 6th-of-26 NIH funding ranking among public genetics departments, and federally funded consortium initiatives such as a $27 million NIH grant for the Genomics-enabled Learning Health System Network.

Its revenue model is grant-driven rather than commercial: primary funding comes from NIH R01, R03, P01, T32, and R25 grants, supplemented by foundation funding (e.g., SynGAP Research Fund, MacArthur Foundation fellowships) and university/state appropriations. The department has no direct end-customer pricing, generating PhD-trained researchers and externally licensed software/educational content as its primary "products." Its go-to-market is academic: PhD recruitment weekends, faculty hiring, research collaborations with clinical and academic partners, and distribution of free educational content through web platforms.

Name

Eccles Institute of Human Genetics at University of Utah

Legal name

Department of Human Genetics at University of Utah (Eccles Institute of Human Genetics)

Website

https://genetics.utah.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Department of Human Genetics (Eccles Institute) at the University of Utah is an academic research department that combines experimental and computational genomics to study health and disease, trains PhD students and postdocs, and develops widely-used bioinformatics software and free public genetics education platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research and Education

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Genetic & Genomic Testing (germline, somatic, carrier, pharmacogenomics) (HLAAALAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Biology & Life Science Enrichment (Biotech, Genetics, Anatomy) (EDAMABAF)

Keywords

• Human genetics research
• Genomics education
• Computational genomics tools
• Biomedical research training
• Genetic disease research

Headquarters

HQ city

Salt Lake City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. NIH Research Funding: Primary research funding from National Institutes of Health grants including R01, R03, P01 awards and T32 training grants
2. Training Program Grants: T32 and other training program grants (e.g., NIGMS R25 PULSE grant) supporting graduate and postdoctoral training
3. Foundation/Organization Funding: Research funding from foundations and organizations such as SynGAP Research Fund, MacArthur Foundation fellowships
4. Consortium Funding: Multi-institution consortium funding (e.g., $27M NIH grant for Genomics-enabled Learning Health System Network)

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Eccles Institute of Human Genetics is an academic department within the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah that conducts human genetics and genomics research combining experimental (zebrafish, mice, human) and computational approaches. It trains the next generation of researchers through its PhD program in Human Genetics and postdoctoral fellowships, and provides free public genetics education through the Learn.Genetics and Teach.Genetics online platforms.

Product overview

The Eccles Institute of Human Genetics at University of Utah operates two primary educational platforms: Learn.Genetics and Teach.Genetics. Learn.Genetics is a free public educational platform offering interactive resources covering genetics, cell biology, evolution, human health, neuroscience, and science tools. Teach.Genetics is its companion educator-focused platform providing NGSS-aligned curriculum units for middle and high school instruction. The institute also develops research software tools including DeepMosaic (mosaic variant detection), MosaicBase (mosaicism database), and PASM/MPAS (deep sequencing methods) for the scientific community. All educational resources are offered free of charge to support science literacy and genetics education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Learn.Genetics Free online educational platform offering interactive resources, virtual labs, and learning modules covering genetics, cell biology, evolution, human health, neuroscience, and science tools for students and the general public.
• Teach.Genetics Companion platform to Learn.Genetics providing NGSS-aligned curriculum units, classroom resources, and professional tools for educators to bring genetics, bioscience, and health education into the classroom.
• PhD Program in Human Genetics Full graduate training program with application process, student guidelines, financial support, and preliminary exam requirements, providing broad education in genetics and intensive research training.
• DeepMosaic Open-source computational tool for control-independent mosaic single nucleotide variant detection, developed by the Yang lab and published in Nature Biotechnology in 2023.
• MosaicBase Database tool for studying mosaic mutations at unprecedented resolution, published in Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics in 2020.
• PASM and MPAS Amplicon-based deep sequencing methods developed for studying mosaic mutations, published in Human Mutation in 2015.
• BEDTOOLS Widely-used open-source software tool for genome research, part of a suite used by thousands of researchers worldwide for structural variation detection, variant annotation, and pedigree analysis.
• MAKER Easy-to-use genome annotation pipeline designed for research communities without extensive bioinformatics expertise.
• Utah Genetics Training Program (UGTP) T32-supported genetics training program providing predoctoral researchers with mentorship, teaching opportunities, and professional development for academic or industry careers.
• STRchive Dynamic resource consolidating research literature and clinical resources on tandem repeat disease loci for the research and clinical community.

Quantifiable outcome

• 6th of 26 public genetics departments nationwide in NIH grant funding
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• 38 Training Grants at 30 Institutions (PULSE Validation)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 April 2026PIs from 38 training grants at 30 institutions have signed on to participate in the validation process for the PULSE (Program Understanding and Learning through Strategic Evaluation) system developed by Dr. Louisa Stark and team.
• Multi-Institution Consortium for Genomics-enabled Learning Health SystemcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 November 2024Multi-institution consortium including Mark Yandell (HG), Dr. Martin Tristani-Firouzi (Dept. Pediatrics), and Dr. Kensaku Kawamoto (Dept. Biomedical Informatics) to integrate genomic information into existing learning health systems. NIH awarded $27 million over five years to this consortium.
• UCSD (University of California San Diego)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with UCSD on research published in Nature regarding human development and peripheral nervous system formation. Xiaoxu Yang collaborated with colleagues at UCSD.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Jackson Laboratory: Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit genetics research institution with strong NIH funding, model-organism research, and training programs; comparable as a peer institution pursuing similar genomics, mouse-model, and biomedical research missions, though not a university department.

Direct peers

• Stanford University Department of Genetics: Stanford's genetics department operates a parallel mix of experimental and computational genomics research, NIH-funded labs, and graduate training programs, and is a direct peer in academic rankings.
• Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics: Top-tier academic genetics department combining experimental and computational genomics with strong NIH funding and biomedical research partnerships; directly comparable to Utah by mission, training programs, and research portfolio.
• University of Washington Department of Genome Sciences: UW Genome Sciences is one of the leading public-university genetics/genomics programs with similar computational genomics emphasis, large faculty, NIH funding scale, and software-tool development heritage.
• Baylor College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Human Genetics: Baylor's department is a leading genetics training and research unit with strong NIH funding, comparable scope of graduate programs, and similar clinical/translational research orientation.
• Yale Department of Genetics: Yale's Department of Genetics is a comparable academic department with NIH-funded faculty, graduate training programs, and a balance of computational and experimental genomics research.
• Johns Hopkins Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics: Johns Hopkins' department is a peer academic unit in human genetics and genomics research with NIH-funded faculty, graduate training programs, and translational research orientation.

Broad incumbents

• NIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI): NHGRI is the federal flagship institute funding and conducting human genomics research; it is comparable as the principal counterpart in the NIH ecosystem that funds the department and shapes research priorities.
• Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: Broad Institute is a much larger genomics research organization with overlapping computational genomics, software tooling (e.g., GATK), and large-scale NIH-funded consortia; comparable in research themes, but operates at larger scale and is not a single university department.
• Whitehead Institute / MIT Department of Biology: Whitehead/MIT is a premier biomedical research institution with overlapping computational genomics and model organism research; comparable in scientific prestige and grant funding scale, though structurally different.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=fVaQInT-avg
• Facebookfacebook.com/1515803396834678
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/geneticsutah

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Eccles Institute of Human Genetics at University of Utah