The US will provide $5 billion in new grants for medical research, which will also create thousands of new jobs, President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday.
The funds will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the $787-billion economic stimulus package passed in February is known, to "conduct cutting-edge research all across America, to unlock treatments to diseases that have long plagued humanity, to save and enrich the lives of people all over the world," Obama said at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) outside Washington.
Much of the focus will be on the Human Genome Project, cancer, heart disease and autism.
The NIH will expand the Cancer Genome Atlas to better understand and treat the disease, collecting more than 20,000 tissue samples to sequence the DNA of more than 20 types of cancer.
"These investments will save jobs, they'll create new jobs - tens of thousands of jobs - conducting research, and manufacturing and supplying medical equipment, and building and modernizing laboratories and research facilities all across America," Obama said.
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