January 25, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN DIEGO – Rapidly expanding gene-sequencing firm Illumina Inc. opened a new 295,000 square-foot research and development facility that will have a focus on developing new products for the company.
The new five-story structure, known as Building 6, is located in the company’s Golden Triangle campus. In an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune, Illumina Chief Executive Officer Francis deSouza, said the new facility, in part, will further the company’s goal of accelerating a “revolution in health care that’s powered by genomics.”
Illumina is currently hiring, the Union Tribune said, with about 130 open positions in the San Diego area.
The new San Diego facility isn’t the only one under development by Illumina. Last year the company broke ground on a $149 million construction project in the Bay Area. The campus, which is expected to open in 2017 will include laboratory and office buildings, a large central quad with an outdoor amphitheater, playing fields and meeting spaces.
Earlier this month, Illumina unveiled the NovaSeq Series, a new and scalable sequencing architecture expected one day to enable a $100 genome. The current cost of sequencing is about $1,000. The platform redefines high throughput sequencing with unrivaled throughput, ease of use, low per sample costs, and unmatched flexibility, the company said in a statement. The NovaSeq Series is the most powerful sequencer Illumina has ever launched. The company expects it to “open new horizons for more highly powered experiments at the depth required to discover rare genetic variants.” It was designed for greater ease of use, as well as well as to allow a broader set of researchers access to genetic information.
“In addition to a single instrument capable of sequencing from three to 48 human whole genomes per run, the NovaSeq Systems will open up new markets by making routine a wide range of applications from ultra-deep sequencing of matched tumor-normal pairs, to large-scale variant discovery studies associated with complex diseases, and low-pass sequencing of seed banks to select for specific traits,” the company said in a statement.
Also this month, Illumina and IBM partnered to expand access to genome data interpretation by integrating Watson for Genomics into Illumina’s BaseSpace Sequence Hub and tumor sequencing process. The collaboration is designed to help standardize and simplify genomic data interpretation. By adding Watson for Genomics to Illumina’s next-generation sequencing platform, researchers who use Illumina’s cancer genome sequencing panel will have rapid access to information to help interpret the broad array of variant data, the company said. Illumina is set to release its fourth quarter and year-end financial reports Jan. 31.
