GenomeQuest to Lead Biomarker World Congress Panel on Applying Whole Genome Sequencing to Developing Companion Diagnostics

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Richard Resnick, GenomeQuest's chief executive officer, will moderate a distinguished panel on Tuesday, May 3, 2011, at the Biomarker World Congress in Philadelphia titled "The Impact of Next Generation/Whole-Genome Sequencing on Companion Diagnostics" for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are advancing to next generation sequencing and data management technologies.

The Biomarker World Congress panel will be held Tuesday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (EDT) at the Lowes Philadelphia Hotel and simulcast through WebEx via the following link: https://eval.webex.com/eval/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=920931500. To access the teleconference, North American listeners can dial 1-650-429-330 or 866-469-3239 and use access code 920931500.

Panel participants:

• Richard Wilson, Ph.D., Professor and Director, The Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine
• Dr. Dom Spinella, Ph.D., Executive Director Translational Medicine, Pfizer Inc.
• Dr. Michael Nohaile, Ph.D., Global Head, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics
• Glenn Miller, Ph.D., Vice President and Head of Personalized Healthcare & Biomarker Strategy, Portfolio & Alliances, AstraZeneca
• Iya Khalil, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, GNS Healthcare

Key questions for the panel discussion:

• Will whole genome sequencing (WGS) companion diagnostics (CDx) be a practical/high ROI genomics investment for pharma and why or not?
• Can WGS-CDx be transformational in drug rescue and how?
• How will WGS-CDx affect the design and operation of clinical trials?
• What practical steps/investments should pharma be making in this area?
• What advances/benefits of WGS are creating these opportunities?
• How will this affect the strategies of diagnostic companies and research labs?
• Which therapeutic areas offer the most promise in the near-term?

Whole-genome sequencing applied to diagnostics holds great promise for health care. Of the $5 trillion spent globally on health care, about 65% of therapy decisions are based on diagnostic test results. WGS companion diagnostics, which can predict an individual's response to a drug, are expected to transform drug discovery and development and patient care.

"GenomeQuest enables pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop WGS-based diagnostics as pure software – an advance which adds immense precision and efficiencies to the industry," Resnick says. "Software algorithms armed with whole genome data can fully capture and assess the increasingly complex genetic factors of diseases and breakthroughs can be delivered far faster and cheaper through software updates than by producing whole new diagnostic machines and reagents."

About GenomeQuest:

GenomeQuest, the global leader in sequence data management, helps life science organizations realize the full promise of genomics. More than 160 leading health and agriculture companies, including nine of the top ten pharmaceuticals, use GenomeQuest for mission-critical work. The core technology of the company is the GQ-Engine—a sequence database engine that is purpose-built for storing, managing, and analyzing sequence data at whole- and multi-genome scale.

Learn more at www.genomequest.com.

SOURCE Waggener Edstrom Worldwide