The University of Arizona and Phoenix Children’s Hospital Join PierianDx Partner Network to Access Patient Genetic Marker Database

ST. LOUIS, MO, US - Oct 15, 2014 - The University of Arizona and Phoenix Children’s Hospital Join PierianDx Partner Network to Access Patient Genetic Marker Database

ST LOUIS (Oct. 15, 2014) - PierianDx announced today that the University of Arizona and Phoenix Children’s Hospital have signed customer contracts to join the network of partners using PierianDx’s genetic testing software and services.

PierianDx offers an end-to-end informatics solution that efficiently manages next-generation sequencing processes and shares clinical insights to allow its fast-growing partner network to better diagnose patients and ultimately deliver more effective outcomes.

The University of Arizona Genomics Core will leverage PierianDx’s expertise and Clinical Genomicist Workstation as its clinical bioinformatics tool to help it develop and validate a large custom cancer panel of more than 500 genes that will be capable of detecting all types of variants.

“We are very excited to join the network of partners using PierianDx’s genetic software services,” said Dr. Michael Hammer, Director of the University of Arizona Genetics Core.  “The software will help us to streamline the reporting of genomic profiling results to our physicians and will facilitate the curation of a clinical grade variant database at the University of Arizona. Not only will this partnership aid our oncologists in the pursuit of better treatments for their cancer patients today, this will provide unprecedented opportunities to match the right patient with the right treatment, and ultimately improve the outcome for many patients in the years to come.”

Phoenix Children’s Hospital is working with PierianDx to develop and validate a clinical next generation sequencing test that will be used in a pediatric cancer clinical trial. This test will be the first of its kind encompassing non-malignant exome, cancer exome and RNA sequencing.

”Phoenix Children’s has a unique approach to these highly comprehensive genomic analyses-driven clinical trials for pediatric patients,” said Dr. Nazneen Aziz, Chief Research Officer for Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “Drug development for pediatric cancers is an area that has not received due attention, so we are hopeful that with this approach, many new treatment options for children suffering from various types of cancer will be identified.”

About PierianDx

PierianDx enables clinical labs to deliver patient-specific diagnosis and treatments based on an individual’s DNA. In active use since 2011 by Washington University in St. Louis, PierianDx’s proprietary Clinical Genomicist Workstation software, knowledge bases, IT backbone and workflow management tools provide an end-to-end solution for managing clinical next-generation sequencing processes. For more information, please visit www.pieriandx.com or @PierianDx on Twitter.

About the University of Arizona Genetics Core

The University of Arizona Genetics Core offers access to state-of-the-art resources and services to help investigators, educators, students and the biotech community conduct and promote research in the field of genomics. UAGC provides a wide range of molecular biology services and support ranging from Complete Solutions to fee-per-use services. For more information, please visit http://uagc.arl.arizona.edu.

About Phoenix Children’s Hospital

Phoenix Children’s Hospital is Arizona’s only children’s hospital that is ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals. Phoenix Children's provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children’s provides care across more than 75 pediatric specialties. The Hospital is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information, visit www.phoenixchildrens.org.