Victorian Clinical Genetics Services And Edico Genome Deploy First DRAGEN Bio-IT Platform In Australia

SAN DIEGO and MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Murdoch Children's Research Institute's (MCRI) Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS) today announced a partnership with Edico Genome to reduce the turnaround time of genomic testing from months to days. VCGS deployed its DRAGEN^TM Bio-IT Platform earlier this year as part of the Acute Care Genomics project, which is analyzing genomic data from 250 babies and children in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) across Australia.

VCGS is a leading specialist in childhood and adult genetics services, offering a comprehensive range of genetic testing and clinical support services to thousands of individuals and families throughout Australia. As a part of MCRI, VCGS is a not-for-profit organisation that funnels all proceeds back into research. Together, VCGS and MCRI have the largest collective genetics expertise in the Southern Hemisphere. They provide fully integrated research, diagnostics and clinical genetics services to provide healthcare professionals with access to leading technology and a supportive team of clinical geneticists and genetic counsellors.

"We are a collective of scientists, doctors, genetic counsellors, technicians, researchers and other health practitioners jointly dedicated to delivering world-class clinical genetics services and testing throughout Australia," said Sebastian Lunke, Ph.D., head of the Translational Genomics Unit at the VCGS. "With the integration of DRAGEN, we are now able to drastically reduce the turnaround time for genetic tests. As a result, we can not only provide potential life-altering results faster, but also sequence more patient data and help to save more newborn babies' lives."

Leveraging field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, DRAGEN rapidly accelerates analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, completing analysis in as little as 20 minutes. The DRAGEN platform is highly reconfigurable, enabling users to run DRAGEN's complete suite of pipelines, including Germline, Somatic, RNA and more, all from the same platform. Edico Genome's dedicated staff of bioinformaticians, computer scientists and engineers continuously develop new algorithms and features pipelines designed to increase accuracy, speed and scalability. DRAGEN is available both onsite, in the Cloud and through a blended hybrid-cloud solution.

"Diagnosing children and newborns in the NICU and PICU is a race against the clock. While NGS is known to be a rich diagnostic tool, lengthy turnaround times have prevented its use in this setting," said Pieter van Rooyen, Ph.D., president and CEO at Edico Genome. "Shrinking NGS analysis times enables potentially life-altering results and corresponding treatments to be received as quickly as possible while increasing labs' capacity, enabling more patients to benefit from NGS. VCGS is truly changing the landscape of NGS at the point of care in Australia, and we look forward to working together on this important endeavor."

VCGS deployed DRAGEN in January 2018 as part of their clinically accredited pipeline after a six-month-long validation period.

About Edico Genome

Edico Genome is the leading secondary analysis solution provider for next-generation sequencing, delivering its powerful DRAGEN^TM Bio-IT platform to clinical, research and genome centers around the globe. Leveraging field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, DRAGEN delivers best-in-class accuracy, speeds, scalability and costs, enabling customers of all sizes to focus on what matters most – delivering breakthrough results. The comprehensive set of DRAGEN pipelines can be run onsite, in the Cloud or through a seamless hybrid cloud blend, allowing organizations to scale as their throughput fluctuates. Edico Genome has set two GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS^TM titles for its speed, and received top marks for its accuracy in the recent PrecisionFDA Challenge. For more information about DRAGEN, visit www.edicogenome.com.

About VCGS

The Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS) is a specialist childhood and adult genetics service. VCGS is a not-for-profit organisation, offering a comprehensive range of genetic testing and clinical support services to thousands of individuals and families throughout Australia and the world.

VCGS, along with our parent company, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), has the largest collective genetics expertise in the Southern Hemisphere. This fully integrated research, diagnostic and clinical genetics service is unique and means patients and health professionals have access to leading technology and are fully supported through a team of clinical geneticists and genetic counsellors. All proceeds go back into research. For more information about VCGS visit https://www.vcgs.org.au/

Media Contacts

Inga Feitsma
Communications Manager
Murdoch Children's Research Institute/VCGS
03 9936 6336 I 0408 657 741
[email protected]

Stephanie Black
Marketing Manager
Edico Genome
(858) 722-3694
[email protected] 

Monica May
Canale Communications
(619) 849-5383
[email protected]

SOURCE Edico Genome

Related Links

http://www.edicogenome.com