December News and Product Briefs
News Briefs
Novogene and Illumina entered into an agreement to jointly develop clinical applications in reproductive health and oncology based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. In particular, the two companies will work together to develop a user-friendly diagnostic system for clinical prenatal DNA and oncology testing in the Chinese market. Novogene will provide its nucleic acid extraction, library preparation, and data analysis software, while Illumina will provide NGS instrument components and related reagents. Press release
The tranSMART Foundation announced that it will manage and further develop the OpenBEL project in an agreement with Selventa. Biological Expression Language (BEL) is a language, developed by Selventa, for representing scientific findings in a standard way to make those findings easier to share, supported by the OpenBEL member-based community. The OpenBEL project becomes the second main project for the tranSMART Foundation, adding to the original tranSMART software platform. Each project will remain independent, but the Foundation will pursue integration between them. (For more on OpenBEL, see, “Ring My BEL.”) Press release
The North Shore-LIJ Health System and OPKO Health formed a strategic alliance to provide genomic testing, molecular diagnostic testing, and support services such as genetic counseling. The scope of testing will cover all genetic disorders, including prenatal screening, pediatric and postnatal diagnosis, assessing risk for inherited cancer, and testing for genetic cardiac abnormalities and neurological disorders. It will also include genetic analysis of cancer for sensitivity to drug therapies. A new limited liability corporation related to the partnership will generate knowledge from a shared data infrastructure consisting of fully annotated genomic data with detailed clinical information, with the aim of gathering evidence on the medical value of genomic and genetic testing. Press release
Emulate announced an expanded research collaboration with Merck, to deploy Emulate’s Organ-Chips across certain Merck discovery programs. The research will focus on using Emulate’s Small Airway Lung-Chip and Intestine-Chip to enable predictive modeling of inflammatory processes in the human lung and the gastrointestinal system. The disclosure of this expanded collaboration coincides with a publication in Nature Methods, showing that Emulate’s Small Airway Lung-Chip can demonstrate the mechanism of action for therapeutic compounds acting on inflammatory disease states in the small airway, particularly in diseases such as asthma. (For more on Emulate’s pharma partnerships, see, “With Johnson and Johnson, Harvard Spinoff Emulate Unveils New Organs-on-Chips.”) Press release
Berkeley Lights signed an agreement with the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai to provide instrumentation for single cell annotation and genomics. Berkeley Lights’ OptoSelect technology is designed to isolate single cells without destroying them, allowing it to work with small, precious samples such as fine needle aspirates. The technology will be used to automate tasks such as tumor profiling, allowing researchers to measure morphology, surface markers, DNA sequence and protein secretions of single cells. Press release
Sophia Genetics closed a $15 million Series C financing round led by Alychlo. The funds will be used to continue Sophia’s market expansion and broaden its range of genomic tests. Sophia Genetics now supports more than 100 healthcare institutions across 20 countries with the analytics platform Sophia DDM to analyze the genetic make-up of some common cancers and inherited conditions. Press release
Scientists at TGAC released an open-source tool called ‘NanoOK’ that provides alignment-based quality control and error profile analysis for the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer. NanoOK’s main output is a PDF report featuring graphs and tables of sample analysis data. Individual graphs are also available to include in publications and presentations, and the raw data is available for users to perform additional custom analysis. The tool currently supports four popular Nanopore aligners, but is extensible through a Java programming interface. It also handles metagenomic sampling, due to support for multiple reference sequences. Press release
Smpl Bio received a $500,000 investment from Connecticut Innovations. The investment will further the development of Smpl Bio’s bioinformatics platform for biomarker research. The company, a spinoff from the University of Connecticut lab of Craig Nelson, aims to replace public software tools for interpreting multi-omics datasets with a simplified platform that does not require difficult on-line programming. Hartford Business
Quintiles launched its Integrated Asset Development Plan (IADP) offering. The new suite of services combines development and regulatory strategy with therapeutic knowledge, data analytics and modeling. As part of the IADP offering, Quintiles advises biopharmaceutical companies on considerations for an asset’s value proposition, Target Product Profile, regulatory plan, and a Clinical Development Plan. The IADP also includes market access planning, evidence generation plan, commercial launch plan, lifecycle management and real-world evidence risk management plans, in keeping with the stage of development for the asset. Press release
BioCision announced the availability of CryoPod Carrier, a hand-portable solution for the transport of biospecimens and temperature-sensitive therapeutics, including immunotherapies and vaccines. The technology is the result of a joint development project with Brooks Automation. The CryoPod Carrier is a liquid nitrogen vapor-based carrier that can transport biospecimens at -150°C or lower for more than four hours on a single liquid nitrogen charge. The CryoPod Carrier also includes onboard electronics that display temperature, date and time; audible and visual alarms; and logging functionality that allows operators to record and download the temperature and event history as needed. Press release
SHYFT Analytics announced that it has grown to over 100 employees and more than doubled its number of life sciences customers within 20 months of raising its first round of growth capital. The SaaS-based company, based in Waltham, Mass., plans to expand operations to New York City and the West Coast in 2016. SHYFT’s cloud-based Real World Evidence (RWE) platform for data management and analysis doubled its software subscriptions in 2015. Press release
MorphoSys will implement Dotmatics’ Vortex platform to analyze and visualize their screening data. Vortex allows scientists to visualize scientific objects including molecules, sequences and genes, and provides cheminformatics and bioinformatics analysis tools. The platform is a collaborative environment where researchers can share ideas and discuss results in real time. Press release
Honeywell completed the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich’s laboratory research chemicals business based in Seelze, Germany. The acquired business will be integrated into Honeywell’s Fine Chemicals business and will continue to be led by the core leadership team of the acquired company. The combined business unit will develop and manufacture research chemicals and other materials used in drug discovery, diagnostic testing and other laboratory applications. Press release