AsianScientist (Jun. 18, 2015) – WuXi NextCODE, a precision medicine company using the genome to improve health, has been selected by Genomics England (GeL) to provide clinical interpretation of the whole genome sequences of both rare disease and cancer patients as part of the first phase of the 100,000 Genomes Project (UK100K) of the UK National Health Service (NHS).
GeL was established by the UK Department of Health with the aim of sequencing 100,000 whole genomes from about 75,000 volunteer participants by 2017. The project is recruiting NHS patients with common cancers, as well as NHS patients with rare diseases and their families.
WuXi NextCODE will deploy its unique database model and clinical and tumor-normal analysis and reporting systems at GeL, enabling NHS clinicians to begin to efficiently analyze patient sequence data and to identify causative variants in rare diseases and driver mutations in tumors.
“The results of the process announced today are an important validation of the uniquely broad power of our technology for applying genomic big data to healthcare,” said Mr. Hannes Smarason, co-founder and COO of WuXi NextCODE.
“Our system is proven and in use in every facet of GeL’s activities–from diagnostics to population research and better drug development–and we look forward to putting the full range of our capabilities to work for them.”
GeL plans to sequence and interpret the genomes of 8,000 patients in this initial phase of the UK100K project and to test the systems prior to contracting with the four winning companies.
“GeL is a pioneer in the global movement to realize precision medicine at scale and we are honored to play a part in delivering on this vision in the UK and around the world” said Dr. Ge Li, chairman and CEO of WuXi PharmaTech, of which WuXi NextCODE is a wholly owned subsidiary.
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Source: WuXi AppTech.
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