Ultima Genomics Announces UG 100™ Sequencing Platform Selected for UK Biobank's Groundbreaking Human Proteome Study

World's Most Comprehensive Protein Study Highlights Ultima's Commitment to Unlocking the Power of Genomics at Scale

FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultima Genomics, Inc., a developer of an ultra-high throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform, today announced that its UG 100^™ was selected as the sequencing platform to enable UK Biobank's unprecedented protein study, which will be the world's largest and most comprehensive proteomics study to date. The UG 100^™ was selected by a consortium of 14 leading biopharma companies funding the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project and will be used in conjunction with Thermo Fisher Scientific's Olink^® Explore HT proteomics platform to play a central role in this first-of-its-kind effort in understanding disease progression and advancing personalized medicine. This unparalleled project aspires to quantify more than 5,400 protein markers across 600,000 samples, including those from half a million UK Biobank participants and 100,000 second samples taken from a subset of these participants across different time points (spanning up to 15 years). This will allow researchers to explore a unique and unprecedented database.

The UK Biobank project, announced today, aims to investigate how fluctuations in protein levels during mid- to late-life may influence disease progression and overall health. This comprehensive dataset will offer researchers invaluable insights into the biological mechanisms behind diseases and will help drive the development of diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.

"Being chosen for this ambitious project underscores the high-throughput, cost-effective capabilities of Ultima's NGS technology and its pivotal role in enabling large-scale research projects and its complementarity with the Olink technology," said Gilad Almogy, CEO of Ultima Genomics. "This initiative represents a cornerstone effort in the second era of the Human Genome Project and sets a new benchmark for population-scale health studies. With access to high-quality and low-cost sequencing technology, UK Biobank, its consortia members, and other researchers can confidently pursue larger and more comprehensive studies, including those adding additional layers of omics information like protein to nucleic acid sequencing. Our platform was designed to unlock biology at a scale previously thought impossible, and we are proud to support UK Biobank in advancing human health discoveries."

Dr Chris Whelan, Pharma Proteomics Project Lead, said:

"UK Biobank's proteomic dataset has the potential to enable more powerful biomarker discovery, more accurate disease prediction, and more successful drug development. Analysing samples from two time points in the same volunteer will allow us to examine how protein levels change across hundreds of health and disease states over time, at an unprecedentedly large scale."

"This will represent one of the world's largest ever biopharmaceutical research collaborations, underlining the growing importance of proteomics as a drug discovery tool. I can't wait to see how the scientific community will explore these data to pinpoint molecular drivers of disease progression, disease subtypes, and aging." 

Carl Raimond, President Proteomic Sciences, Thermo Fisher Scientific, commented:

"This project represents an important step forward in proteomics research, with the potential to redefine how we understand and treat disease," said Carl Raimond, president Proteomic Sciences, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer and, to that end, we are proud to collaborate with organizations that share our goals and provide complementary technologies. We look forward to seeing the advancements achieved from the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project powered by our combined platforms."

The protein abundance analysis via sequencing by counting for UK Biobank's project will be conducted using the Olink^® Explore HT proteomics platform and Ultima's UG 100^™ sequencing platform, with the actual sequencing performed at the Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC), one of the world's largest human genetics sequencing and research facilities. The collaboration further highlights UG 100's exceptional capacity to meet the demanding requirements of large-scale high-throughput genomic research.

About Ultima Genomics

Ultima Genomics is unleashing the power of genomics at scale. The Company's mission is to continuously drive the scale of genomic information to enable unprecedented advances in biology and improvements in human health. With humanity on the cusp of a biological revolution, there is a virtually endless need for more genomic information to address biology's complexity and dynamic change—and a further need to challenge conventional next-generation sequencing technologies. Ultima's revolutionary new sequencing architecture drives down the costs of sequencing to help overcome the tradeoffs that scientists and clinicians are forced to make between the breadth, depth and frequency with which they use genomic information. The new sequencing architecture was designed to scale far beyond conventional sequencing technologies, lower the cost of genomic information and catalyze the next phase of genomics in the 21st century. To learn more, visit www.ultimagenomics.com/

Ultima Media Contact
Vikki Herrera
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SOURCE Ultima Genomics