The companies have now sequenced 250,000 whole genomes for AGD.
Biotechnology companies Illumina and Nashville Biosciences (subsidiary of Vanderbilt University Medical Centre) have sequenced 250,000 whole genomes for the Alliance for Genomic Discovery (AGD) initiative.
The initiative aims to accelerate drug target discovery, therapeutic research and clinical development through large-scale genomics and the establishment of a preeminent clinical genomic resource.
"The achievement of this milestone demonstrates the value of our strategic collaborations across the ecosystem to advance unprecedented progress in biologic and therapeutic discovery,” said Illumina senior vice president of services, arrays and genomic access Todd Christian.
To establish the resource, NashBio provided de-identified DNA samples from VUMC’s BioVU biobank. The samples were sequenced by deCODE genetics using Illumina’s end-to-end sequencing workflow, including the Dragen analysis pipeline.
The samples were then integrated with de-identified longitudinal clinical phenotype data derived from VUMC’s electronic health record data.
The resulting dataset is available to AGD’s biopharma members using Illumina Connected Analytics as a research tool and data platform. Representing a variety of demographics, ancestries and diseases, the dataset is designed to help develop drugs with a genetic basis.
“We're exploring proteomics and other omics modalities to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms of disease and enable discovery of promising targets for pharmacological intervention,” said NashBio CEO Dr Leeland Ekstrom. “The whole genomes of 'AGD 1.0' are only the start."
