Helix Selects Swift Biosciences to Power Exome+™ Assay with Swift 2S™ Turbo DNA Library System

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Swift Biosciences, Inc ("Swift") and Helix OpCo, LLC ("Helix") today announced a Partnership Agreement to leverage Swift's 2S™ Turbo DNA library preparation for Helix's Exome+™ assay. Helix, a population genomics company, uses the Exome+™ assay to power population health programs focused on accelerating the integration of genomics into clinical care and facilitating novel genetic discovery.

Swift 2S™ Turbo launched in the summer of 2018 and was Swift's first foray into the high-throughput laboratory market.  Building its brand on low input and precious DNA samples, Swift disrupted the large production market segment by solving clients' pain points.  Turbo delivers a high-quality and automation-friendly kit at a competitive price by leveraging robust enzymatic fragmentation and a two-hour workflow.

Helix has been continually optimizing its Exome+™ assay and as it prepares to launch its latest version, it was apparent that the synergies between these two new products were going to create a superior workflow when used together.  The Exome+™ assay gives clinicians and researchers the benefits of a targeted panel, the breadth of a microarray, and the completeness of an exome – all from one sample and one assay.  The Healthy Nevada Project, powered by Renown Health, is an example of how the Exome+™ assay is being used in combination with environmental data and longitudinal EHRs to improve health outcomes and accelerate innovative research.

Through this partnership agreement, Swift supplies Helix with high-quality library prep reagents customized, packaged, and configured to Helix's unique technical specifications, plate format with high-throughput indexing, and automation requirements. These customizations significantly reduce the in-lab set up time and costs for Helix to run their services.

During the evaluation phase, Swift personnel worked closely with counterparts at Helix to provide technical support and facilitate efforts between the two companies to achieve consistent and reproducible data. Helix's dedicated quality control team was able to leverage Swift 2S Turbo's pre-optimized enzymatic chemistry for fast and robust fragmentation, supplementing it with a lot-based certificate of analysis to dial in the optimal fragmentation time.

"We look forward to our strategic relationship with Helix moving forward.  It is wonderful to work with a company that helps health systems and research institutes more deeply integrate genomics into clinical care and accelerate genomic research." said Nathan Wood, Swift's President and CEO.

Helix chose 2S Turbo because of its superior coverage uniformity and on-target performance with minimal base composition bias and excellent data reproducibility, which were of critical importance to Helix's product integrity. Furthermore, Helix applied their team's deep knowledge of genomics and bioinformatics to ensure a seamless integration into their existing sample preparation and target capture pipeline.

"In designing the Exome+™ assay, one of the most important things to us was ensuring there were no gaps in coverage for clinically relevant regions. Swift's coverage uniformity and on-target performance helped significantly here." said David Becker, Helix's VP of Quality and R&D. "We look forward to our continued partnership with Swift, which has played a role in helping us develop one of the most versatile whole exome assays on the market capable of supporting both clinical and research applications."

About Helix

Helix is the leading population genomics company working at the intersection of clinical care, research, and genomics. Its end-to-end platform enables health systems, life sciences companies, and payers to advance genomic research and accelerate the integration of genomic data into clinical care. Powered by one of the world's largest CLIA / CAP next-generation sequencing labs and its proprietary Exome+™ assay, Helix supports all aspects of population genomics including recruitment and engagement, clinically actionable disease screening, return of results, and basic and translational research. Learn more at

www.helix.com

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About Swift Biosciences

Swift Biosciences develops enabling technologies for genomics, translational, and clinical research. Our technologies expand the range of sample inputs to extend the applications of next-generation sequencing (NGS).

We have developed unique intellectual property (IP) to enhance adapter ligation to both single and double-stranded DNA, improve multiplexed PCR for targeted sequencing and enable novel solutions for NGS workflows, and our RNA is the fastest on the market using Adaptase^® technology.

Using its proprietary technologies, Swift has developed DNA and RNA library preparation kits and library normalization for NGS.

Our high-quality product portfolio features fast, easy and reliable solutions for many lab workflows.

For more information, visit SwiftBioSci.com and follow Swift Biosciences on Twitter (@SwiftBioSci).

CONTACT: Camille Cappello, 858-220-8521, [email protected]

SOURCE Swift Biosciences

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