(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said he will ask Congress for $215 million to fund his vision for a million- strong cohort of volunteers whose genetic and health data will be used to develop personalized medicine.

"Precision medicine — in some cases, people call it personalized medicine — gives us one of the greatest opportunities for new medical breakthroughs that we have ever seen," Obama said Friday at the White House, where he announced the initiative.

The White House proposal will be part of the fiscal 2016 budget that Obama plans to submit to lawmakers on Feb. 2. The National Institutes of Health, with $130 million, will spearhead the development of the national cohort, while the National Cancer Institute will get $70 million to focus on genomic drivers in cancer.

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