Company Announcements

BGI announced in September a collaboration with Maxwell Plus, a machine learning medical technology company, on a project entitled, “A model to predict the risk of developing advanced or metastatic prostate cancer using genetic makeup and family history of cancers.” All samples will be sequenced on BGI’s MGISEQ-2000 sequencer at its Australian laboratory.

In October, Genoox, a cloud-based system for clinical genetic analysis, partnered with Microsoft Healthcare to bring the Microsoft Genomics service to its customers. The companies plan to offer the Microsoft Genomics service for secondary genomic analysis to selected Microsoft Enterprise users.

Bionano Genomics, maker of the Saphyr genomic platform, and Genoox launched the Genoox Integrated Platform for the identification of structural variants in October. Genoox technology can be used to align short-read sequence data with Bionano’s structural variant calls. The companies will co-sell and co-market the integrated platform.

Eagle Genomics announced in October a partnership with Microsoft Genomics, the first microbiome partnership for Microsoft Genomics. Eagle Genomics’ e[automateddatascientist] platform will be available to Microsoft Enterprise users.

In October, Sanofi Genzyme and PerkinElmer Genomics launched the Lantern Project to offer access in the US to free diagnostic genetic testing for a number of lysosomal storage disorders.

Genialis, a provider of data integration solutions, partnered in October with Roche to provide a streamlined NGS workflow for gene expression profiling using Roche’s KAPA RNA HyperPrep Kit.

DNAnexus announced in October that it has been granted an Authority to Operate under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for the management and analysis of biomedical data on its cloud-based platform. FedRAMP is a US government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and service. The DNAnexus Platform is the only industry or federal cloud-based platform for biomedical informatics and data management granted authorization under FedRAMP sponsored by the DHHS.

In October, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Oncomine Dx Target Test was CE-IVD marked as an IVD for detection of 46 cancer-driver gene variants.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Oxoid business entered into a comarketing and distribution agreement with SGS MOLECULAR in November. Thermo Fisher will exclusively sell SGS’ All Species ID DNA Analyzer Kits and SGS All Species ID Software as part of an end-to-end workflow solution for the food and beverage market on Thermo Fisher’s NGS platforms. The NGS workflow enables multi-species screening and identification for food authenticity.

Genomics service company BGI Americas and Gencove, a genomics technology company, entered into an agreement in October to offer a new low-pass sequencing service to lower barriers to large-scale genomics projects. This service combines BGI’s DNBseq Next Generation Sequencing technology and Gencove’s ImputeSeq low-pass sequencing analysis pipeline. The solution will be available in the Americas as a complete turn-key service from both companies.

Agricultural genomics company NRGene announced in October a partnership with cannabis breeding firm Kayagene to develop cannabis varieties for hybrid seed production through stabilized lines.

In October, Fabric Genomics, a provider of clinical interpretation software for genomic data, and Genomenon, a genomic data search company, entered into an integration and comarketing agreement.

In October, Congenica, a diagnostic decision support platform provider, partnered with the UK’s Epilepsy Society to study the genomics of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

Dovetail Genomics named new distributors in October: Premas Life Sciences for India; Millennium Science for Australia and New Zealand; Genomics Bioscience for Taiwan; Ultravision Technology and Shanghai Biozeron Biotechnology for China; Bio-Active for Thailand; and Biomedic Science Material for Vietnam.

In October, Paragon Genomics partnered with SOPHiA GENETICS to incorporate its CleanPlex NGS target enrichment technologies into SoPHIA’s AI Platform. The solution provides a comprehensive and standardized solution for accurate genomic detection and characterization of all types of tumor alterations in a single test.

In November, Blue Cross Blue Shield announced in November a partnership with Illumina  to determine the availability and clinical understanding of DNA sequencing technologies, genetic testing and precision medicine. The companies plan to identify areas across the country where people can access these services and where there is limited access. The project is expected to be completed in early 2019.

Product Introductions

In September, Thermo Fisher Scientific launched a new workflow for its Oncomine Tumor Mutation Load Assay to provide more flexibility in tumor mutation burden experiment designs, while simultaneously providing sample profiling capabilities for key variants associated with published evidence across 409 cancer-related genes.

Expanding beyond proteomics tools, ABclonal Technology introduced in September two DNA library preparation kits and two RNA library preparation kits. The Rapid DNA Lib Prep Kit and StepWise DNA Lib Prep Kit starts at $218 per kit. The Stranded mRNA Lib Prep Kit and NonStranded mRNA Lib Prep starts at $558 per kit.

In October, Oxford Nanopore released a new version of the MinION and GridION flow cells that include the new ‘Rev D’ ASIC. The new release extends the amount of time that flow cells can be used for DNA sequencing or RNA sequencing, increasing the overall yields of DNA sequence data to as much as 30 Gb per flow cell (at this performance, the equivalent of ~10X human genome for $500).

Oxford Nanopore launched in October the MinIT, a rapid analysis and device control accessory for the MinION DNA/RNA sequencer to enable real-time, high-throughput data analysis.

In October, Fabric Genomics announced it is offering select customers the option of using Build 38, the most current reference genome assembly. Fabric Genomics has processed more than three thousand patient genomes on Build 38 for Genomics England.

QIAGEN launched in October the QIAseq FastSelect RNA Removal Kit. Off-the-shelf options include rRNA or globin mRNA removal, while custom RNA removal solutions for selected transcripts can be designed by QIAGEN.

In October, QIAGEN introduced QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI) Analyze Universal for full end-to-end workflow support of all major clinical sequencing platforms and assay types. The company also released an improved QCI Interpret somatic cancer clinical decision support application.

In October, 1010 Genome launched a data analysis service for NGS applications. The company specializes in the development of optimized and customized data analysis workflows.

Swift Biosciences introduced in October the Normalase Kit for enzymatic library normalization, its first foray beyond library preparation. The Kit employs a two-step workflow. The first Kit available is suitable for libraries with full-length indexed adapters that have been added by ligation.

In October, informatics firm SOPHiA GENETICS debuted Alamut Genova, an advanced variant exploration software for genomic data visualization and interpretation, the latest evolution of Alamut Visual. Novel features, including ACMG/AMP classification, 3D protein visualization, Sanger electropherogram visualization and new splicing predictions that complete the existing solution.

DNAnexus, a biomedical informatics and data management company, launched in October the DNAnexus Apollo, an enhanced platform for clinico-genomic data science exploration, analysis and discovery. It provides a scalable cloud environment and flexible data models.

In October, BGI debuted the MGISEQ-T7 sequencer, featuring a quadruple flow-cell staging that allows simultaneous but independent operation of 1 to 4 flow cells in a single run. It is capable of daily output of data up to 6 Tb.

Illumina debuted in October the TruSight Oncology 500 (TSO 500), which utilizes both DNA and RNA from subject tumor samples to identify key somatic variants underlying tumor progression, such as small DNA variants, fusions and splice variants. TruSight Oncology 500 can measure tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability. It will ship in the first quarter of 2019.

In October, Agilent Technologies released the Agilent OnePGT, a genome-wide NGS solution for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). OnePGT allows parallel detection of multiple monogenic disorders (PGT-M), translocations (PGT-SR) and aneuploidies (PGT-A) on a single biopsy.

Sales and Orders of Note

In October, Personalis, a provider of advanced genomic sequencing and analytics for immuno-oncology, announced an extension to its contract with the US Department of Veterans Affairs to sequence a further 34,000 whole human genomes for the Million Veteran Program (MVP). This brings the total of all Personalis contracts from the MVP to almost 80,000 human genomes.

Genomic data management and analytics firm BC Platforms launched in June its genomics platform for HUS, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, the largest healthcare service provider in the whole Nordics region.

 Congenica, the provider of a diagnostic decision support platform, announced in October that it was awarded a multi-year contract by Genomics England to be a provider of Diagnostic Decision Support Services.

In October, HTG Molecular Diagnostic, which provides NGS-based molecular profiling solutions, announced that Switzerland’s Institute of Oncology Research has adopted the HTG EdgeSeq technology at its genomics facility.