INDUSTRIAL IMPACT, MEDICAL
Twist Bioscience | March 10, 2023
On March 9, 2023, Twist Bioscience Corporation, a leading firm providing high-quality synthetic DNA through its silicon platform, announced the launch of integrated antibody discovery services. This premium offering combines the company's synthetic libraries and AI machine learning with an in vivo immunization approach acquired through its acquisition of Abveris, also known as Twist Boston. This service provides customers with optimized, development-ready antibody candidates.
The combined team, now called Twist Biopharma Solutions, is led by Tracey Mullen, MBA, the senior vice president of biopharma for Twist Bioscience. This newly formed entity leverages years of industry expertise, scientific excellence, and proprietary technology to discover the best antibody candidate for therapeutic targets of interest.
Twist Biopharma Solutions offers an end-to-end workflow for centralized antibody discovery and optimization, including target validation, hit generation, lead selection, lead optimization, and lead characterization. Twist, supported by high-throughput DNA synthesis and IgG antibody production, constructs extensive and particular synthetic antibody libraries with discovery starting with either in vivo or in vitro diversity.
The newly integrated in vivo discovery approach from Abveris of single B cell screening and hybridoma discovery enables parallel paths where multiple technology methods can be leveraged to build a panel of highly diverse antibody leads with broad epitope coverage. In addition, this multi-pronged approach can increase the likelihood of discovering highly specific, high-affinity functional antibodies by sampling synthetic and natural diversity.
The South San Francisco and Boston biopharma teams were combined to create Twist Biopharma Solutions, led by Tracey Mullen. Aaron Sato, Ph.D., remains integrally involved in Twist Biopharma Solutions and, as a chief scientific officer of Twist Bioscience, extends his expertise across the organization. Tracey Mullen joined Twist Bioscience in November 2021 through the acquisition of Abveris. In April 2022, she took on the position of senior vice president of operations, driving the completion of the Factory of the Future in Wilsonville, Oregon, which began shipping products in January 2023. Before joining Twist, she served as CEO of Abveris and worked on the antibody discovery team at Biogen.
About Twist Bioscience
Twist Bioscience is a leading biotechnology company specializing in synthetic biology and genomics. It has developed a proprietary DNA synthesis platform that enables the production of custom-designed DNA strands faster, more accurately, and at a lower cost than traditional methods. In addition, Twist collaborates with partners across industries to develop customized DNA sequences for specific applications and offers a range of other products and services, such as oligonucleotides, synthetic genes, and custom panels for next-generation sequencing. The company has also developed a library of over 100 billion synthetic antibodies, which can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
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MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
SOPHiA GENETICS | March 01, 2023
On February 28, 2023, SOPHiA GENETICS, a leading cloud-native software solutions provider in the healthcare space, announced that Synergy Oncology, a part of Synergy Laboratories based in Mobile, Alabama, will utilize SOPHiA DDM™ to develop a new cancer profiling solution. Synergy Oncology is a specialist in innovative platforms that improve patient care.
The use of SOPHiA DDM™ for Hereditary Cancers Solution in Synergy Oncology's state-of-the-art laboratory technologies will lead to the launch of Totality, a comprehensive end-to-end solution for tumor profiling that will assist clinical studies, cancer research and patient care.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is commonly used to detect biomarkers for hereditary cancers, but the resulting datasets are vast and complex, requiring sophisticated analysis. The SOPHiA DDM™ for Hereditary Cancers Solution leverages machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with patented technologies to evaluate raw NGS data, simplifying interpretation and expediting reporting. As Synergy Laboratories seeks to expand into other oncology offerings, the SOPHiA DDM™ platform could serve as a one-stop solution.
Synergy's new product, Totality, examines genes from solid tumor tissue and, by using SOPHiA DDM™ for Hereditary Cancers, provides physicians with a consolidated report that matches detected molecular alterations with clinical trials and FDA-approved therapies. By combining SOPHiA DDM™ for Hereditary Cancers with Synergy Oncology's technology, experts will be able to analyze and interpret findings from NGS data confidently, transforming high-quality data into valuable insights for researchers and care providers.
Synergy Oncology provides the most comprehensive NGS kit of its kind, including hereditary testing, liquid biopsy testing, and myeloid malignancies. The combination of Synergy Oncology and SOPHiA GENETICS technology will expand Synergy's oncology portfolio while helping to further the U.S. oncology market.
About SOPHiA GENETICS
SOPHiA GENETICS is a leading cloud-native software solutions provider in the healthcare space. It aims to establish data-driven medicine as the standard of care for life sciences research. The company combines expertise in life sciences, data computing and medical disciplines to bring data analytics solutions to market. SOPHiA GENETICS achieve its mission through the global adoption of SOPHiA AI, which uses pattern recognition, statistical inference and machine learning to provide equal benefits to all users. SOPHiA AI also encourages expert knowledge sharing for a sustainable impact on future patients. The company believes digital technologies are the key to unlocking the era of Data-Driven Medicine, where secure data pooling and knowledge sharing will be precious for patients. The company also focuses on combining the first two pillars of Data-Driven Medicine, Radiomics and Genomics, to ensure that the data used to help patients today will also benefit tomorrow's patients.
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MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
QIAGEN | January 06, 2023
QIAGEN recently announced an exclusive strategic partnership with Helix, a California population genomics leader, to advance companion diagnostics for hereditary diseases.
The requirement for companion diagnostic devices and tests capable of detecting clinically relevant genetic abnormalities grows along with the accelerated development of precision medicines. These tests helps in making decisions by showing patients that are most likely to benefit from a specific therapeutic product or be at risk. Although companion diagnostics that use whole exome sequencing have primarily been used in oncology so far, they are widely believed to have a great deal of potential in hereditary disease areas like cardiovascular, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and auto-immune diseases.
According to the agreement, QIAGEN will be Helix’s exclusive marketing and contracting partner in the United States. This partnership will use the Helix® Laboratory Platform, the first whole exome sequencing platform, to get a de novo class II authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
As a leader in precision medicine, QIAGEN has more than 30 master partnership agreements with multinational pharma and biotech firms to develop and commercialize companion diagnostic tests for their drug candidates. Its companion diagnostic offerings include next-generation sequencing (NGS), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR), sample types ranging from liquid biopsy to tissue, and disease areas such as cancer and Parkinson's, including 11 FDA-approved PCR-based companion diagnostics.
Helix has developed an end-to-end platform that enables health systems, life sciences firms, and payers to enhance genomic research and expedite the integration of genomic data into clinical care. It has teamed with major health systems to enable population genomics programs across the United States. These programs significantly improve the identification and recruitment of patients for clinical trials in hereditary diseases such as Parkinson's and cardiovascular or inflammatory diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
About QIAGEN
QIAGEN is a leading provider of sample-to-insight solutions, enabling clients to get significant molecular insights from samples containing life's building elements. Its sample technologies are used to isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials. The company serves over 500,000 customers worldwide in molecular diagnostics (human healthcare) and life sciences (academia, pharma R&D, and industrial applications, primarily forensics).
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