Sequencing
Company Announcements
Edico Genome announced in February a partnership with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s Victorian Clinical Genetics Services, which will deply its DRAGEN Bio-IT Platform, marking the platform’s first deployment in Australia.
Edico Genome entered into a partnership in February with InterSystems. Edico Genome’s DRAGEN Clinical Genomics Information System will leverage InterSystems’ HealthShare HealthConnect to exchange and communicate genetic information in a bidirectional manner, streamlining clinical NGS workflows.
Edico Genome introduced in March the DRAGEN Global Distribution Partner Network to provide new and existing DRAGEN customers with regionally focused technical and sales support, thus streamlining the purchase and implementation of DRAGEN.
In March, Nightingale Health, which provides NMR-based biomarker analysis assay for early disease detection, partnered with PerkinElmer. Nightingale’s comprehensive metabolic profiling of blood biomarkers complements PerkinElmer’s global genomic lab testing platform of newborn screening, diagnostic testing and genetic sequencing services.
WuXi NextCode announced in March a genomics partnership with Google Cloud. The partnership includes hosting WuXi NextCODE’s core suite of capabilities on Google Cloud and its availability on the Google Cloud Launcher marketplace. In addition, key Google genomics and research tools will be integrated and deployable in tandem with the WuXi NextCODE platform, beginning with the DeepVariant secondary analysis pipeline, alongside other open-source analysis pipelines and tools available through Google Cloud Platform.
WuXi NextCode named Rob Brainin, executive vice president and COO, as CEO in March.
In March, QIAGEN partnered with Natera, a developer of NGS assays that include non-invasive prenatal genetic testing and the analysis of circulating tumor DNA, to develop cell-free DNA assays for use on QIAGEN’s GeneReader NGS System. Under the 10-year agreement, QIAGEN will pay Natera $40 million in upfront licensing fees and prepaid royalties in the first quarter. Natera is also eligible for an additional $10 million of milestone payments, as well as ongoing royalty payments.
Pierian Dx announced in March a partnership with Cancer Genetics, a firm which enables precision medicine in oncology from bench to bedside through the use of oncology biomarkers and molecular testing. The companies will provide a comprehensive precision oncology testing and workflow solution to enhance patient care by combining their respective Clinical Genomics WorkSpace and Focus::NGS offerings.
In March, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin joined Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Companion Dx Center of Excellence Program.
Illumina announced in March a partnership with the Chinese Medical Genetics Association of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association to launch whole-genome sequencing for Chinese children with birth defects and rare undiagnosed diseases. This is a global extension of Illumina’s iHope program, set up in the US in 2017, to help children who do not have insurance or family financial means to do genomic testing.
In March, Biocept, a commercial provider of liquid biopsy tests, entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Thermo Fisher Scientific. The companies will work together to validate Thermo Fisher’s Oncomine liquid biopsy panels and Biocept will become a Thermo Fisher “Center of Excellence” for oncology-focused liquid biopsy initiatives.
Product Introductions
In March, BC Platforms debuted the GeneVision end-to-end solutions from raw genome data to patient reports, which uses the Microsoft Genomics service. GeneVision utilizes several of BC Platforms’ existing pipeline technologies.
Pacific Biosciences introduced in March v 5.1 of its Sequel Software and a new polymerase. With this release, the Sequel System can achieve up to 10 Gb per SMRT Cell for genomic libraries, effectively doubling the throughput when using ultralong inserts (>40 kb) for de novo genome assembly. For targeted and RNA sequencing, customers can achieve up to 20 Gb per SMRT Cell. For long amplicons (>3 kb), the new polymerase increases the number of highquality sequences per SMRT Cell.
In March, PierianDx launched Clinial Genomics Services, a full range of expanded services to support adoption of its Clinical Genomics WorkSpace.
Sales and Order of Note
In March, the University of Texas at Arlington in partnership with the University of North Texas Health Science Center, launched the North Texas Genome Center, which houses five Illumina NovaSeq6000 systems.
BC Platforms announced in March that Gene By Gene, a provider of integrated multi-disciplinary genetic testing services, has selected its platform to provide a solution for running parallel imputation of genotype data from multiple chips as well as historical data.
In March, Pacific Biosciences announced a purchase order for 10 PacBio Sequel Systems from China-based Annoroad, a provider of genomic solutions for both clinical testing and life science research.
Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in March that Canada-based nonprofit Exactis Innovation, which is involved in the integrated recruiting and matching of cancer patients to clinical studies for targeted therapies, will standardize its Oncomine assays and Ion GeneStudio S5 Series systems. Exactis expects to receive up to two thousand samples annually through its Personalize My Treatment (PMT) program,
