Find here a listing of the latest industry news in genomics, genetics, precision medicine, and beyond. We will update and add to this page on a regular basis. This page is not a compilation of all relevant information but rather contains some key highlights that we consider to be of importance to share with the community.
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News for the month of May 2022
Funding / IPO
- Domain Therapeutics Raises $42m Series A Financing
- OncoHost Raises $35 Million Series C Funding Round to Launch Blood Test That May Rewrite the Standard of Care for Precision Oncology
- Osmind Raises $40M Series B Round Led by DFJ Growth to Expand Platform for Breakthrough Mental Health Research and Treatment
- Forsanis’ Series A financing round of more than 10M EUR lays foundation for international growth of digital cancer therapeutics Mika
- Aspen Neuroscience Announces $147.5 Million Series B Financing
- Anja Health Raises $4.5M Seed Funding Round to Make Cord Blood Stem Cell Banking Accessible and Affordable For All
- Palantir Selected for $90 million, 5-year HHS Contract Vehicle
Precision Medicine
- BostonGene Announces Integration With NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®)
- 54gene Completes Initial Phase of the Landmark Nigerian 100K Genome Project
- InformedDNA Announces Evidence-Based Genomics Decision Support Service for Health Plans
RWE / RWD
- BC Platforms Announces Partnerships with Three Finnish Biobanks to Advance Novel Diagnostics and Treatments
- Formation of GenomeX, an initiative within the HL7® Organization’s CodeX FHIR® Accelerator The goal is to achieve a high level of interoperability in genomic data and use it to improve patient outcomes by standardizing the data collected and shared across many systems – laboratories, clinicians, researchers, and other stakeholders to enable a learning health system
- Pfizer Presents Real-World Evidence of Ibrance for HR+, HER- Breast Cancer
Miscellaneous
- A new approach to vaccinations: 3D printed patches
- Illumina steps deeper into drug discovery with Deerfield, Janssen partnerships
Digital Health
SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
- After a sweeping review, CDC looks to rebuild public trust
- A National Strategy for COVID Response and Pandemic Preparedness Must Address Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases Health experts caution against ‘new normal’ strategies for COVID-19
Publications
- Mapping cell types across human tissues The Tabula Sapiens Consortium report pan-tissue single-cell transcriptome atlases covering more than a million cells, including 500 cell types, across more than 30 human tissues from 68 donors. These four studies apply rigorous ontologies to consistently annotate and compare single cells between organs.
- Genetic architecture of 11 major psychiatric disorders at biobehavioral, functional genomic and molecular genetic levels of analysis
- Improving polygenic prediction in ancestrally diverse populations
- Within-sibship genome-wide association analyses decrease bias in estimates of direct genetic effects
- Intermittent PI3Kδ inhibition sustains anti-tumour immunity and curbs irAE Lessons from an Amgen candidate PI3K cancer drugs’ immune toxicity study
- Polygenic risk scores for CARDINAL study The Cardiometabolic Disorders in African-Ancestry Populations (CARDINAL) study site is a well-powered, first-of-its-kind resource for developing, refining and validating methods for research into polygenic risk scores that accounts for local ancestry, to improve risk prediction in diverse populations.
News for the month of April 2022
Funding / IPO
- Codetta Biosciences Announces $15 Million in Series A Financing
- Sampling Human Raises $2 Million to Support the Development of Engineered Cells for Single Cell Analysis
- Codexis and seqWell Announce Strategic Investment and Partnership Initiation
- TRIANA Biomedicines Launches With $110M to Unlock the Full Potential of Molecular Glues
- Pheast Raises $76M in Series A Funding to Train the Immune System to Feast on Cancer
- Real-world data and AI startup ConcertAI scores $150M, valuation skyrockets to nearly $2B
- AI-backed clinical data startup Mendel raises $40M to make sense of unstructured clinical information like EHR data
- BostonGene Announces $150 Million Series B Funding at a Multi-Billion Dollar Valuation, Propelling the Company to Unicorn Status
- AI in Genomics Start-Up MNM Bioscience Gets nearly $1M Eureka Eurostars Funding for AI-Based Cancer Patient Stratification Tool
- AI startup Unlearn adds $50M for better, faster, smaller & cheaper clinical trials
- Reify Health Secures $220M to Support Clinical Trial Diversity at $4.8B Valuation
- Stroke care coordination company Viz.ai lands $100M
- Clarify Health Snags $150M for End-to-End Patient Intelligence
- Medical-interpretation company Jeenie scores $9.3M in Series A funding
- Valar Labs Raises $4M in Seed Funding
Mergers & Acquisitions
Precision Medicine
- New Research from the Caris Precision Oncology Alliance Finds Prognostic and Predictive Drug-Induced Gene Signatures for Colorectal Cancer Patients
- Pharmaceutical Companies Launch the Precision Cancer Consortium to Drive Global Access to Comprehensive Genomic Testing for all Patients with Cancer
- New precision medicine tool discovers hidden genetic connections that could improve personalized medicine
- The Danish National Genome Center Partners with Lifebit to Deliver Nationwide Personalised Medicine The Danish National Genome Center has awarded Lifebit a four-year contract to implement Lifebit’s Federated Trusted Research Environment software, Lifebit CloudOS, within Denmark’s national supercomputing center.
- Illumina Expands Access to Genomics in Latin America through New State-of-the-Art Solution Center
- Illumina Supports Leading German Hospital to Accelerate Genetic Disease Diagnosis in Critically Ill Children
- CancerLinQ and Count Me In Collaborate to Empower Patient Participation in Clinical Cancer Research
- BC Platforms Partners with SAS to Deliver Faster Insights from Patient Data for Global Health Care and Life Sciences
(Genomic) Data Platforms / Analysis
Genetic Testing / Genomic Profiling
- Allelica Joins Forces with Leader in Genotyping Technology to Enable Polygenic Risk Score Illumina is licensing Allelica’s software to provide its customers with polygenic risk score (PRS) capabilities.
- SOPHiA GENETICS Hits Milestone of One Million Genomic Profiles Analyzed by the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform
Liquid Biopsy-based Testing
- Guardant Health Presents New Data Showing Blood Test Highly Accurate in Detecting Multiple Cancers at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
- Exai Bio Demonstrates Its Unique RNA-based Liquid Biopsy Strategy for Early Detection and Monitoring of Multiple Cancers
- With milestones on the horizon, Guardant Health CEOs lay out their vision for cancer detection
RWE / RWD
Spatial Genomics
SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
- Tackling the consequences of long COVID
- Genetic links revealed between severe COVID-19 and other diseases
- Million Veteran Program’s response to COVID-19: Survey development and preliminary findings
- A BA.2 Surge Could Wreak Unequal Havoc
- Moderna says trial results suggest redesigned vaccines can better protect against variants
Digital Health
- Q1 2022 digital health funding: Staying the course in choppy waters Q1 2022 U.S. digital health funding closed with $6.0B across 183 deals, with an average deal size of $32.8M. This quarter fell significantly behind Q4 2021’s $7.3B and the trailing twelve month quarterly average of $7.1B.
- Digital Medicine Society Launches Toolkit to Support Reimbursement for New Drugs Developed Using Digital Endpoints
EMR / EHR
Microbiome
Miscellaneous
- BC Platforms Partners with SAS to Deliver Faster Insights from Patient Data for Global Health Care and Life Sciences
- New imaging method helps to provide new, more personalized cancer treatments
- Singlera Genomics announces research collaboration with Astellas Pharma pursuing methylation-based tools to better understand biological reactions to pharmaceuticals
- Stilla and Promega Announce Co-Marketing Agreement to Offer Complete Digital PCR Workflow Solution
- NeoGenomics Inc. Announces Partnership with Lilly for Lung Cancer Sponsored Testing Program Utilizing the NeoTYPE(R) DNA and RNA Assay
- FDA urges creation of racial, ethnic recruitment plans for clinical trials
- Walgreens turns to robots to fill prescriptions, as pharmacists take on more responsibilities
Publications
- Human genome sequenced in its entirety for the first time
- Researchers discover over 40 new genetic markers for Alzheimer’s disease
- Polygenic risk scores identify high-risk individuals in European and Asian ancestry, but less so in African ancestry
- Researchers develop new model to detect and combat lung cancer recurrence
- Study tracks COVID-19 infection dynamics in adults
- Best practices for the interpretation and reporting of clinical whole genome sequencing
News for the month of March 2022
SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
- FDA Greenlights Second COVID Booster for Select Groups
- Roll-out of Omicron-specific vaccine delayed to autumn: German minister
- Pfizer and BioNTech Receive Expanded U.S. Emergency Use Authorization for an Additional COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Individuals Aged 50 Years and Older
- Lung damage may persist long after COVID-19 pneumonia
- How Is the U.S. Watching for the Next COVID Variant?
- The scientific race to understand the omicron variant
- Here we go again: The BA.2 version of omicron
- NIH launches trial to study allergic reactions to COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
- Scientists predict structure of SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting pseudoknot
- Precision Medicine Reveals Who Is Most At-Risk From COVID-19
Funding / IPO
- Illumina Accelerator Invests in Seven Omics Startups Advancing Breakthrough Therapeutics, Diagnostics, DNA Storage, Mental Wellness, and Sustainable Foods Applications
- BillionToOne Closes $125M Series C Funding with Premier Global Investors
- Nalagenetics Raises US$12.6M in Series A Funding
- PreludeDxTM Closes $20 Million in Funding to Advance Growth Initiatives and Development of Its Precision Medicine Portfolio
- Geneos Therapeutics Secures $17 Million in Series A2 Financing to Advance Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy Platform
- Genomenon Raises $20M Series B Financing, Launching a New Era in AI-Powered Genomic Data
- Colossal Secures $60M Series A Funding To Advance Genetic Engineering and De-extinction Technologies
- DNAnexus Secures $200 Million Funding Led by Blackstone Growth to Advance its Biomedical Data-Driven Technology Platform for Precision Medicine
- MDisrupt Lands $6 Million in Seed Funding to Build Its Digital Health Intelligence Platform
- NextRNA Launches with $56 Million in Funding to Bring Transformative Non-Coding RNA-Directed Medicines to Patients
Mergers & Acquisitions
- ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (IPA) Announces Agreement to Acquire BioStrand BV – Revolutionizing Biotherapeutics with Methodology to Encode Omics and Power Drug Development with Advanced Artificial Intelligence
- Singleron Acquires Proteona
Precision Medicine
- Clinicians outline UK plan for integrating pharmacogenomics into prescribing
- All of Us: Release of Nearly 100,000 Whole Genome Sequences Sets Stage for New Discoveries
- HealthPartners, Helix partner to create DNA testing program that helps families better understand their genetic health
- Fortis Life Sciences Partners With AccuGenomics to Expand Genomics Portfolio
- The Evolving Role of the Medical Geneticist
- Strata Oncology Sentinel Trial for Personalized Cancer Recurrence Monitoring Enrolls First Patient
- Dante Labs establishes the first of its Regional Medical Genomics Boards in Europe made of national and multinational world leaders in genomics
- Oncocyte Announces Development and Co-Marketing Agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to Expand Access to Precision Oncology
- insitro and Genomics England Announce Partnership to Provide Multimodal Search Capabilities and Empower Data Exploration and Derivation of Novel Insights
- Stanford Health Care appoints inaugural chief data scientist As the inaugural chief data scientist for Stanford Health Care, Nigam Shah will lead an effort to advance the use of artificial intelligence in patient care and hospital administration
Genomic / Genetic Testing
- Invitae Launches Genomics-Forward Digital Health Platform
- Hindenburg Research publishes report on Natera’s medical billing practices stating that Natera’s revenue growth has been fueled by deceptive sales and billing practices aimed at doctors, insurance companies and expectant mothers.
Genomic Data Platforms / Analysis
- Strategic Dx Partnering Allows for Innovation and Value at Scale
- The Broad Institute Selects Fabric Genomics in Implementation of Clinical Whole Genome Sequencing Offering
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches CE-IVD Marked Next-Generation Sequencing Instrument for Use in Clinical Labs
- Illumina wins extended U.S. ban on BGI gene-sequencer sales
- A 2022 NGS Cost and Throughput Comparison Post Singular Genomics announcing the new G4 system at the end of 2021, and Element Biosciences announcing the AVITI system in March 2022, Dale Yuzuki takes a look at the existing state-of-the-art systems in a single graphic
- Bionano Genomics Announces Publication of Comprehensive Validation of Optical Genome Mapping for Hematologic Neoplasms
- Illumina released DRAGEN v3.10 With DRAGEN v3.10, Illumina released a machine learning beta feature and improvements to graph genome mapping
- BC Platforms Opens Singapore R&D Center and Signs New Data Partnership to Drive Precision Medicine in Asia Pacific Region
- Element Partners with Interpretation Expert Genoox to Validate the AVITI™ System for the RUGD Application
Sequencing Technology
- PacBio Opens European Headquarters in London
- PacBio (PACB) Supports SickKids With Sequencing Technology
Single-Cell / Spatial Genomics
- Mission Bio Launches First-in-Class Single-Cell Genomics Solid Tumor Solution on Tapestri Platform
- 10x Genomics Sues NanoString for Infringement of Church Lab Spatial Analysis Patents
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
Metagenomics
Miscellaneous
- Califf admits controversy over FDA’s Alzheimer’s drug decision impacted experts’ trust in the agency
- Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and AmoyDx Sign Application Development Agreement for the Biomek NGeniuS System
- Promega to Launch Post-Doctoral Research Program to Develop New Tools for Genome Editing
- Illumina launches lawsuit against Guardant Health claiming misappropriation of trade secrets Guardant counters that the lawsuit was filed as retaliation for raising concerns with antitrust regulators over Illumina’s Grail acquisition
- NIH’s identity crisis: The pandemic and the search for a new leader leave the agency at a crossroads
- Genomic sequencing aids the global tuberculosis fight
- New data-sharing requirements from the National Institutes of Health are a big step toward more open science
- Adaptive Biotechnologies lays off about 100 people, 12% of headcount, to ‘streamline our workforce’
- The 10 most innovative companies in data science for 2022 Includes IPM.ai, Sema4, Databricks,
- The 10 most innovative biotech companies in 2022 Includes Strata Oncology, DNA Script, Benchling, Myriad Genetics, Biome Makers, Safetraces, and Bridgebio Pharma
Publications
- Bionano Genomics Announces Peer-Reviewed Publication of NeuroSCORE Model to Predict and Prioritize Human Genes Contributing to Neurodevelopmental Disease
- Complete genomic and epigenetic maps of human centromeres
- Early-stage multi-cancer detection using an extracellular vesicle protein-based blood test
- Pan-cancer analysis identifies BIRC5 as a prognostic biomarker
- Two new studies highlight a common mechanism for declining muscle function
- Draft Genome Sequences of a Bifidobacterium Strain and a Bacteroides Strain Isolated from a Human Stool Sample
- Blood biomarker predicts dementia risk in Mexican Americans
- In animal study, implant churns out CAR-T cells to combat cancer
- Evolutionary pressures on genes associated with childlessness
- Predicting the risk of some common diseases in preimplantation fertilized embryos
- Whole genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical Covid-19 Whole genome sequencing in 7,491 critically-ill cases were compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical Covid-19.
- Brain Volumes Shrink With One Daily Drink
- High-content analysis of microRNAs involved in the phenotype regulation of vascular smooth muscle cells
- Genetic atlas links Alzheimer’s with brain’s blood vessels
- Realtime morphological characterization and sorting of unlabeled viable cells using deep learning
News for the month of February 2022
SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
- ‘Decoy’ Protein Works Against Multiple Coronavirus Variants in Early Study
- Another COVID Vaccine Garners Full FDA Approval Moderna’s Spikevax approved for adults ages 18 and up
- New omicron subvariant has new COVID symptoms
Funding / IPO
- Scipher Medicine Closes $110 Million Financing
- Fulgent Genetics Announces Strategic Investment in Spatial Genomics Fulgent Genetics is investing up to $40M to lead Spatial Genomics’ Series A financing, which totals approximately $56M
- Omada Health hits unicorn status with $192M Fidelity-led series E
- Genomenon Awarded NIH Grant to Curate the Human Genome
- Day Zero Diagnostics Announces Completion of $21M Financing
- Technology-Driven Precision Medicine Company Variantyx Secures $41.5M in Funding
- BioFluidica Announces $6 Million Series B2 Funding to Support the Commercialization of its Liquid Biopsy Microfluidics Platform, the LiquidScan™
- SPACs in Healthcare: The Hot Ticket has Cooled off
- Biofidelity Raises $23M in Series A+ Financing
- CENTOGENE Announces USD 62 Million Aggregate Equity and Debt Financings to Support Growth Plan
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Labcorp Completes Acquisition of Personal Genome Diagnostics
- Takeda-Backed Biotech Grabs $24 Million for tRNA-Based Therapies
- Element Biosciences acquires Loop Genomics to add long-read tech to DNA sequencing platform
- Maravai LifeSciences acquired MyChem for $240M in cash
Precision Medicine
- England’s first Rare Diseases Action Plan published to mark Rare Disease Day 2022
- Why rare disease needs precision medicine—and precision medicine needs rare disease
- Personalized Medicines Accounting for More Than a Third of Newly Approved Drugs Approval of 17 personalized medicines representing approximately 35 percent of all newly approved therapeutic molecular entities. Personalized medicines have now accounted for more than a third of new drug approvals for four of the last five years.
- LifeOmic Evolving Into Precision Medicine, Corporate Wellness Company
Genomics Data Platforms / Analysis
- Element Forges New Partnerships with Industry Leaders Element partners with industry leading companies such as 10x Genomics, Agilent, Dovetail Genomics, Fabric Genomics, Sentieon, QIAGEN, and many more.
- University of Edinburgh spinout company Omecu aims to revolutionize the handling of genome data by drastically reducing the time it takes to analyze millions of genetic records
Microbiome
Genomic / Genetic Testing / Liquid Biopsy
- Foundation Medicine Announces Global Collaboration With Lilly to Develop FoundationOne®CDx and FoundationOne®Liquid CDx as Companion Diagnostics for RETEVMO® and Loxo Oncology at Lilly’s Pipeline Programs
- GRAIL and Point32Health Collaborate to Offer Galleri® Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood Test
- Foundation Medicine’s ctDNA Monitoring Assay, FoundationOne®Tracker, Granted Breakthrough Device Designation by U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Invitae Launches its First CE-IVD Cancer Testing Kits In Europe
- Invitae Supports the Biden Administration’s Advancement of the Cancer Moonshot, Enhanced Recommendations on Genetic Testing for Cancer Treatment
Single-Cell / Spatial Genomics
- NanoString to Showcase CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager at 4th Annual Spatial Genomics Summit
- Scientists map entire human gut at single cell resolution
- Akoya Biosciences Launches New Integrated Spatial Platform: Our First Interview with CEO Brian McKelligon A Mendelspod podcast
Miscellaneous
- The EU Should Not Exclude Private Firms From Voluntary Data-Sharing Frameworks for Social Good
- Natera Hit with Class Action Over Allegedly Inaccurate Prenatal Screening Tests
- Justice Department sues UnitedHealth over nearly $8 billion deal to acquire tech company
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Partners with Medidata Acorn AI to Optimize Clinical Research Site Selection and Speed Patient Enrollment in Clinical Trials
- Medable and CVS Health Announce Collaboration to Expand Clinical Trial Access
- TGEN Partners with Deepcell to Advance Detection, Analysis and Treatment of Disease
- New drug combinations found for resistant cancers
- First gene therapy for Tay-Sachs disease successfully given to two children
- Moderna expands its mRNA pipeline with three new development programs
- Harlan Robins on How T-cell Focused COVID Vaccines Can Move Us Toward Endemicity A Mendelspod podcast
- Biden Presents Ambitious Plan to Cut Cancer Death Rate in Half
- Abcam Collaborates With Twist Bioscience to Enhance Antibody Discovery for Diagnostic and Research Applications
Publications
- Combining p53 mRNA nanotherapy with immune checkpoint blockade reprograms the immune microenvironment for effective cancer therapy
- A proximal-to-distal survey of healthy adult human small intestine and colon epithelium by single-cell transcriptomics Scientists used entire human GI tracts from three organ donors to show how cell types differ across all regions of the intestines, to shed light on cellular functions, and to show gene expression differences between these cells and between individuals.
- Epidemiology and geographic distribution of BRCA1-2 and DNA Damage response genes pathogenic variants in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients
- Spatio-temporal, optogenetic control of gene expression in organoids
- A Scalable Quality Assurance Process for Curating Oncology Electronic Health Records: The Project GENIE Biopharma Collaborative Approach
- Largest bacterium ever discovered has an unexpectedly complex cell
- Genome-wide analysis of 102,084 migraine cases identifies 123 risk loci and subtype-specific risk alleles Largest genetic study of migraine to date reveals new genetic risk factors
News for the month of January 2022
January is typically taken over by the Annual JP Morgan conference, usually held in San Francisco, but this year because of COVID, the conference was yet again held remotely. This healthcare conference tends to be rich in exciting announcements which often lay the ground for what is to come as major trends throughout the year. One often says it’s a window to what is just around the corner for the coming year, and we’d expect this to hold true also for 2022.
Interestingly, the conference started out with Illumina posting new sales record numbers and making a splash with two separate announcements: (1) the announcement of a new sequencing-by-sequencing chemistry (codenamed “Chemistry X) to gear up for its long-read Infinity which is scheduled to launch later this year, and (2) the collaboration with Nashville Biosciences to establish a clinico- genomic resource in alliance with multiple pharma industry partners.
Additional JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Highlights
- Funding
- Significant Investment Accelerates Freenome’s Multiomics Platform for the Early Detection of Cancer Freenome Roche has made an investment of $290 million, bringing Freenome’s total funding to more than $1.1 billion since the company was founded in 2014. This announcement follows Freenome’s recent Series D financing of $300 million in December.
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- mRNA Technology
- CAR-T Cell Therapy
- Century Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb Enter into a Strategic Collaboration to Develop iPSC-derived Allogeneic Cell Therapies
- COVID-19 Vaccine Market
- Pfizer sales of COVID-19 vaccine climb, with tens of billions more expected next year Pfizer expects sales of its coronavirus vaccine will reach approximately $36 billion this year, an increase of $2.5 billion from what it predicted in July and more than twice what it forecast in February as countries continue to ink supply deals for more doses.
- Moderna improves forecast for 2022 sales from COVID-19 vaccine Moderna expected to record sales of about $18.5 billion in 2022 from contracts for its COVID-19 vaccine, and about $3.5 billion from potential additional purchases including booster candidates updated for variants.
- Sequencing Platforms / Insight Generation
- X Marks the $100 Genome: Illumina Presents New Chemistry, Strong Results Illumina shares new sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry (codenamed “Chemistry X) and gears up for its long-read Infinity launch later this year, plus numerous collaborations.
- Nashville Biosciences and Illumina Announce Agreement to Establish Preeminent Clinico-Genomic Resource for Life Sciences Research & Development Nashville Biosciences and Illumina will seek to establish an alliance with multiple pharmaceutical industry partners to perform whole genome sequencing on approximately 250,000 de-identified DNA samples collected under an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved process over the past 15 years.
- Singular Genomics partners with several companies to enable existing NGS Products: NEBiolabs, Lexogen, Dovetail Genomics, Watchmaker Genomics, and Twist Bioscience.
- Scientists describe new approach in NEJM, using Oxford Nanopore DNA sequencing technology to improve prognosis in critically ill patients, in less than 8 hours Oxford Nanopore worked with a team led by Stanford University School of Medicine to develop a rapid, whole genome sequencing approach
- Miscellaneous
- Verily’s Lee details ‘strong’ revenue growth as company eyes employer market in 2022 There has been speculation that Verily is looking to untangle itself from Google and move outside its parent company, Alphabet, which could signal an initial public offering.
- Twist Bioscience’s Comprehensive DNA Synthesis Capabilities Expanded as Industry-Leading Enzymatic Synthesis Process Partners with PacBio, Singular Genomics Enabling New Sequencing Platforms.
- Invitae Reports Preliminary 2021 Revenue of More Than $458 Million and Billable Volume of More Than 1.16 Million
- 64 percent growth year-over-year in revenues
- 76 percent growth year-over-year in billable volumes
- Ended the year with more than 17,500 active healthcare provider accounts
- Active pharma and commercial partnerships expand by 68 percent
- SOPHiA GENETICS Reports Strong Traction in the Launch Phase of its DEEP-Lung-IV Multimodal Clinical Study
SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
- The origin of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern
- Are Some Vaccine Side Effects Just in Our Heads? Talking “nocebo effect”
- Understanding Evolution of COVID-19 Driven Mortality Rate
- Early non-neutralizing, afucosylated antibody responses are associated with COVID-19 severity
- Pfizer Shares In Vitro Efficacy of Novel COVID-19 Oral Treatment Against Omicron Variant
- Biden plans giveaway of 400M masks as Omicron surges
- Covid News: U.S. Website for Free At-Home Tests Launches, With a Few Glitches
- Stanford medical specialists tackle long-COVID and its public implications
- Breakthrough infections with SARS-CoV-2 omicron despite mRNA vaccine booster dose
- Clinical outcomes among patients infected with Omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant in southern California
Funding / IPO
- Septerna Will Take $100M to Unlock Previously Inaccessible GPCRs
- VeriSIM Life closes $15m series A round to advance AI-enabled drug research
- Significant Investment Accelerates Freenome’s Multiomics Platform for the Early Detection of Cancer Freenome Roche has made an investment of $290 million, bringing Freenome’s total funding to more than $1.1 billion since the company was founded in 2014. This announcement follows Freenome’s recent Series D financing of $300 million in December.
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Japan’s Takeda buys Adaptate Biotherapeutics to strengthen immuno-oncology portfolio
- Ginkgo Bioworks Announces Acquisition of Massachusetts COVID-19 Testing Provider Project Beacon COVID-19 LLC
- Sema4 to Acquire GeneDx, Strengthening its Market-Leading AI-Driven Genomic and Clinical Data Platform
Partnerships / Collaborations
- Parse Biosciences Announces Partnership With Research Instruments Group to Offer RNA-Seq Kits in Singapore and Southeast Asia Region
- Oncocyte Announces Development and Co-Marketing Agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to Expand Access to Precision Oncology
Precision Medicine
- How Regeneron Bypasses Bottlenecks to Iterate at the Scale and Speed of Science A DNAnexus white paper
- 50,000th U K Biobank participant scanned in world’s most ambitious imaging study
- Natera Announces Expansion Into Early Cancer Detection and Screening
Sequencing Platforms
- Illumina delivered a strong finish to 2021 with preliminary consolidated fourth quarter revenue of approximately $1.190 billion – up 25 per cent year-over-year.
- Illumina says EU probe of $8bn Grail deal could hit biotech investment deSouza attacks regulatory intervention over cancer test company
- PacBio and Google Collaborate to Use Machine Learning to Optimize Long-Read Sequencing Data Analysis
- World Record-Setting DNA Sequencing Technique Helps Clinicians Rapidly Diagnose Critical Care Patients Initiative led by the Stanford University School of Medicine identifies genetic diseases in as little as 7.5 hours using NVIDIA Clara, Google DeepVariant, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing.
- X Marks the $100 Genome: Illumina Presents New Chemistry, Strong Results
Genomics Data Analysis
Miscellaneous
- FDA Approves Genentech’s Vabysmo, the First Bispecific Antibody for the Eye, to Treat Two Leading Causes of Vision Loss
- Seven technologies to watch in 2022 Nature’s roundup of the innovative tools that are changing science. Includes: long-read sequencing technologies, protein structure predictions via structure-prediction algorithms, precise genome manipulation using genome-editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9, targeted genetic therapies, CRISPR-based diagnostics, and spatial multi-omics.
- When They Warn of Rare Disorders, These Prenatal Tests Are Usually Wrong Additional articles/posts written in response to the NYT article:
- Medicare Proposes to Sharply Limit Coverage of the Alzheimer’s Drug Aduhelm If finalized it would restrict coverage to patients in randomized clinical trials.
- New AZ Vaxzevria data further support its use as third dose booster
- Biogen vows to fight CMS’ draft coverage decision for Aduhelm before April finalization
- Pfizer lays off hundreds of US sales rep as fewer in-person meetings expected to remain permanent
- A Call For Data Equity: Using Pandemic Data Mishaps To Improve Health Outcomes
- 23andMe Initiates Phase 1 Clinical Trial for First Wholly-Owned Immuno-oncology Antibody for Patients with Solid Tumors
Publications
- Integrated genome and transcriptome analyses reveal the mechanism of genome instability in ataxia with oculomotor apraxia 2
- De novo mutation rates at the single-mutation resolution in a human HBB gene-region associated with adaptation and genetic disease
- Spatial proteogenomics reveals distinct and evolutionarily conserved hepatic macrophage niches
- Ultrarapid Nanopore Genome Sequencing in a Critical Care Setting
