Cancer, Meet The Alamo: San Antonio Enlists WuXi NextCODE To Speed Unparalleled Open-Access Cancer Genome Project

SAN ANTONIO, SHANGHAI, CAMBRIDGE, Mass., REYKJAVIK, Iceland, and MADRID, Nov. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genomes Project (SA1kCGP), WuXi NextCODE, and South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) today announced a partnership that will enable San Antonio's pioneering city-wide cancer genomics effort to contribute directly to improving the clinical treatment of cancer around the globe. The SA1kCGP brings together hundreds of doctors, oncologists and surgeons, and a thousand patients to create the basis for this resource: tumor samples from breast, lung, prostate, skin, colorectal, uterine, pancreatic, ovarian, stomach, brain cancers, collected at the time of diagnosis.

START, which operates the world's largest Phase I medical oncology program through clinical sites in the US, China and Spain, has contracted with WuXi NextCODE, a precision medicine company using the genome to improve health worldwide, to sequence and interpret the samples. WuXi NextCODE will utilize its CLIA sequence laboratory and its HIPAA-compliant NextCLOUD secondary analysis and storage solution, powered by DNAnexus.  START is connecting this "delta file" to anonymized patient electronic clinical records using the Medidata Rave system, and will make it available to qualified researchers and clinicians via the cloud.

"We're excited to announce the next phase in this pioneering effort, turning the talents and generosity of our community into better outcomes for patients," said Aimee Locke, founder and president of SA1kCGP. "As global leaders in clinical development and genomics, and with operations in the US, Europe and China, our partners WuXi NextCODE and START are uniquely placed to help us deliver on this vision."

"Our three organizations share the mission of using our unique capabilities and assets to create better medicine for patients everywhere," said Dr Anthony Tolcher, director of clinical research at START. "WuXi NextCODE was the logical partner in genomics. They bring to this project the same expertise they are deploying in large-scale precision oncology initiatives from Genomics England to Qatar, backed by the renowned clinical development capabilities of WuXi AppTec."

"San Antonio is innovating locally and impacting globally, an approach to precision medicine we are thrilled to be a part of," said Hannes Smarason, co-founder, President and COO of WuXi NextCODE, a wholly owned subsidiary of WuXi AppTec (NYSE:WX). "This is a pathbreaking resource in scope, scale, and with START's hallmark clinical rigor. We are all focused here on speeding the delivery of the latest in genome-driven therapy straight to cancer patients, wherever they may be."

About the San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project. SA1kCGP is a pioneering cancer genome research project that has the unprecedented support of more than 200 surgeons, oncologists, and cancer researchers from a broad spectrum of affiliations. It is the largest community-wide undertaking of its kind and, most significantly, all data will be made available publicly at no cost to researchers worldwide.  The project's promise to make all data freely available is built on the belief that no single investigator or institution has all of the answers and encourages the involvement of outsiders who might bring fresh ideas to the urgent and complex problem of gene abnormalities and cancer.  The San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project is a Texas not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) established to accelerate the development of a cure for cancer by conducting whole genome sequencing of cancerous and normal tissues. The project will link the genetic alterations that underlie the cancers to detailed clinical outcomes and all data will be made available publicly at no cost to researchers worldwide. www.sagenome.net.

About START. With centers located in Madrid, Spain, Shanghai, China and San Antonio, Texas, START operates the largest, global, 24-hour Phase I research organization.  START's mission is to accelerate the development of new anticancer drugs for the purpose of improving the quality of life and survival for patients with cancer. For information on START visit www.startthecure.com.

WuXi NextCODE offers uniquely comprehensive and integrated capabilities for using the genome to better diagnose disease and create better medicine. These include a full range of sequencing services through our CLIA-certified laboratory; the world's leading genome sequence analysis system; a novel database architecture that makes it possible to query, manage, store and share massive genomic data with unrivalled speed and efficiency; and the know-how and experience to apply genomics to optimize every aspect of drug discovery and development. With offices in Shanghai, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Reykjavik, we enable clinicians and researchers at institutions and companies worldwide to use the full power of the genome to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. WuXi NextCODE is a wholly owned subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, the operating subsidiaries of WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX). WuXi AppTec comprises a leading open-access R&D capability and technology platform company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, with operations in China and the United States. 

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