SAN DIEGO, Nov. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Illumina Inc.
(NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced that its world-class sequencing
and bioinformatics solutions are being used by HostSeq, part of the
Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), to identify
biomarkers that can help predict potential risk of serious disease
and support the development of novel therapeutics to combat
COVID-19. By sequencing the genomes of up to 10,000 patients
diagnosed or affected by COVID-19 throughout Canada, the findings from this program will
help researchers and the medical community better understand the
role of human genetics in COVID-19 susceptibility.
Illumina Connected Analytics (ICA), the company's signature
bioinformatics solution, will enable researchers to safely and
securely move petabyte-sized datasets generated by CGEn, the
country's platform for sequencing and informatics, from
state-of-art sequencers in Toronto
(The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at The Hospital for Sick
Children (SickKids), Montreal
(McGill Genome Centre), and Vancouver (Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre)
into a common "cloud" accessible to approved researchers at some of
the country's leading research facilities and hospitals. Illumina
has worked closely with CGEn since early 2020 to help provide
comprehensive, end-to-end solutions for reagent supply, sequencing
and informatics to HostSeq.
"We are proud to support and contribute to the work being done
by the Canadian research community to better understand the role of
human genetics in COVID-19 susceptibility," said Alex Aravanis, MD, PhD, Chief Technology
Officer, Head of Research and Product Development at Illumina. "The
data being shared within the HostSeq community, powered by
cloud-based informatics, will help inform and accelerate the fight
against COVID-19."
Stephen Scherer, PhD, Chief of
Research at SickKids, and a scientific leader of CGEn and HostSeq
noted, "Dozens of researchers spanning the entire country are
involved in this effort so data-sharing is essential." Scherer
continued, "If we have learned anything from the pandemic it is
that the answers will come from scientific data."
Illumina sequencing technology is also being
leveraged for some of the work done by another national
initiative, VirusSeq, which coordinates and funds expanded
genome sequencing efforts and supports the sharing of the
data within an open, ethical framework. To date
VirusSeq has sequenced more than 260,000 SARS-CoV-2 viral
genomes with the highest confidence in data accuracy.
"The data from VirusSeq has allowed our public health agencies
to track transmission trends, detect new clusters and outbreaks and
identify evolving viral characteristics that could impact public
health and policy decisions in Canada," said Catalina
Lopez-Correa, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and
Executive Director of CanCOGeN at Genome Canada.
Both HostSeq and VirusSeq are part of the Canadian COVID-19
Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), a Genome Canada-led consortium
committed to generating accessible and usable genomics data to
inform public health and policy decisions, as well as to guide
treatment and vaccine development.
ICA provides a comprehensive, private, cloud-based data platform
that can empower researchers to manage, analyze, and explore larger
volumes of multi-omic data, all in a secure, scalable, and flexible
environment. It can reduce workload and possible human error
associated with combining multiple datasets. For HostSeq, ICA is
deployed on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud and uses the AWS
Canada (Central) Region in Montreal.
About Illumina
Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the
genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as the global
leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving
customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Our
products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology,
reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To
learn more, visit www.illumina.com and connect with us
on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,
and YouTube.
Use of forward-looking statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties, including the expectation for lower costs
related to the storing and managing of genomic data costs. Among
the important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those in any forward-looking statements are: (i)
challenges inherent in developing and launching new products and
services; (ii) our ability to deploy new products, services, and
applications, and to expand the markets for our technology
platforms; and (iii) the acceptance by customers of our newly
launched products, which may or may not meet our and their
expectations once deployed, together with other factors detailed in
our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
our most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, or in information
disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which
are released beforehand. We undertake no obligation, and do not
intend, to update these forward-looking statements, to review or
confirm analysts' expectations, or to provide interim reports or
updates on the progress of the current quarter.
Investors:
Brian Blanchett
1 858.291.6421
ir@illumina.com
Media:
Dr. Karen Birmingham
EMEA: +44 7500 105665
US: 1 646.355.2111
kbirmingham@illumina.com
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SOURCE Illumina, Inc.