30 September 2015 - Genomics England announces that Congenica has won a contract to provide genome interpretation for 8000 patients participating in the 100,000 Genomes Project.
Tom Weaver, CEO of Cambridge-based Congenica is delighted that its technology is reaching patients and says; “One of the aims of Genomics England is to enable NHS patients to gain early benefit from advances in genomics and through participation in the 100,000 Genomes Project we have been able to accelerate development of our Sapientia™ diagnostic platform.
“Working closely in collaboration with NHS genetics centres we have ensured that the tool is optimised to reduce the workload of the labs and to support consultants diagnose rare genetic diseases.
“Furthermore with the support of these genetics centres we are building a knowledge-base that will make it easier for clinicians to compare the results of their patients with anonymised phenotype data from others previously diagnosed with the same genetic mutations. This is a world-leading resource.”
Genomics England also comments that work is also ongoing with its sequencing partner Illumina to explore a variety of bioinformatic challenges around sequencing. Illumina also originated from Cambridge, UK, which, alongside the work of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, shows the depth of knowledge in this UK genomics cluster.
Genomics England also announced that two new companies, Berg Health and NGM Biopharmaceuticals have joined its industry collaboration, known as the GENE Consortium, which is working on a yearlong industry trial assessing how best to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments for patients.
Commenting on both announcements, Sir John Chisholm, Executive Chairman of Genomics England said; “We are delighted to welcome two new partners to the GENE Consortium. Exploring how industry will work with this unique dataset along with driving up the quality of the interpretation of genomic data is crucial to us in finding out how to understand and treat disease better in the future. It’s this that will ensure genomic medicine benefits patients for years to come.”
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For more information about Congenica please contact Sarah Carr/Rachel Holdsworth, Holdsworth Associates PR +44 1954 202789 or email: sarah.carr@holdsworth-associates.co.uk
For more information about Genomics England, please contact Katrina Nevin-Ridley at katrina.nevin-ridley@genomicsengland.co.uk or 0207 882 6493/ +44 7973 481485.
www.genomicsengland.co.uk
Notes to Editors
About Genomics England (www.genomicsengland.co.uk)
Genomics England is a company owned by the Department of Health and was set up to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project. This flagship project will sequence 100,000 whole genomes from NHS patients and their families by 2017.
Genomics England has four main aims:
• to bring benefit to patients
• to create an ethical and transparent programme based on consent
• to enable new scientific discovery and medical insights
• to kickstart the development of a UK genomics industry
The project is focusing on patients with rare diseases, and their families, as well as patients with common cancers.
GENE Consortium participants:AbbVie, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Berg, Biogen, Dimension Therapeutics, GSK, Helomics, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Roche, Takeda.
About Congenica (www.congenica.com)
Congenica is a world leading developer of genome-based discovery and diagnostic technologies.
Congenica is a spin-out from The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. It was founded by six world leading geneticists and bioinformaticians in genomic sequencing, including Dr Richard Durbin who led the international 1000 Genomes Project and the UK 100,000 Genomes Project, and Dr Matthew Hurles, Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a leader in the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) project.
Congenica has developed Sapientia™ technology platform, which allows genome scale DNA sequence data to be presented within a clinically actionable diagnostic report. It is based on pioneering research from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, NHS clinicians and regional genetic testing laboratories.
This underlying technology has been validated by leading independent institutes and clinicians, including Genomics England Ltd.
About the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (www.sanger.ac.uk)
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world’s leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.
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