Strand Life Sciences to Partner With US-based El Camino Hospital to Set Up Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine

BANGALORE, December 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Strand Life Sciences Private Limited, a global life sciences company headquartered in Bangalore, is collaborating with the San Francisco Bay Area based El Camino Hospital to locate a Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at the Genomic Medicine Institute of the El Camino Hospital to accelerate the adoption of next generation sequencing based research panels and counseling services by the physicians at the hospital and its partner clinics.

A Letter of Understanding was signed on Wednesday December 4^th by Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Strand Life Sciences and Dr. Eric A. Pifer, Chief Medical Officer of El Camino Hospital. This signals the start of a collaborative effort to bring advanced genomic tests in cardiology, oncology, pharmaco-genomics and personalized medicine to the community served by the El Camino Hospital, a community that has traditionally been an early adopter of high technology solutions.

The signing was in the presence of the Mayor of San Francisco, the Honorable Edwin M. Lee and delegates from El Camino Hospital and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation who are visiting Bangalore as part of the 'San Francisco - Bangalore Sister City Initiative'. 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Strand Life Sciences said, "It gives us immense pleasure to partner with El Camino Hospital, a leading healthcare provider in the US. The Strand Center will provide them with genomics based analysis and interpretation for improved health outcomes. Strand has a distinguished team of over 200 scientists and researchers working to create some unique solutions in genomics and personalized medicine. Today's partnership is recognition of our commitment to bringing best in class technologies for healthcare closer to people all over the globe."

Dr. Eric Pifer, Chief Medical Officer of El Camino Hospital, said, "El Camino is very excited to work with Strand Life Sciences on a series of projects around bringing genomic medicine to clinical practice. ECH is focused on the practical aspects of clinical medicine, while Strand's expertise, as embodied by their tagline, lies in providing 'Algorithms for Life'. So it is a perfect marriage between partners with diverse expertise and a unified vision."

The El Camino Hospital has an active Genomic Medicine Institute that has been engaged in continuing education in genomics for physicians and some genetic counseling of patients. The hospital is also well known for its South Asian Heart Study that has addressed the disproportionate risk of cardiac disease seen in the South Asian population located in the Bay Area.

Strand has been a pioneer in the delivery of advanced clinical genomics solutions for healthcare institutions in India since early 2013. Coming from this new focus is StrandOmics™, a proprietary solution for clinical interpretation of genomic variants in patient samples with deeper insights leading to informed decisions by physicians.

About Strand Life Sciences

Strand Life Sciences - "Strand" has pioneered the practice of data science in life and health sciences. Strand's segue into life sciences was through informatics products and services for research biologists, chemists, and toxicologists that combine advanced visualization, predictive systems modeling, data integration and scientific content management. Over 2000 research laboratories worldwide (about 30% of global market share) are licensees of Strand's technology products as are several leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Ranked in the top tier of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) informatics providers by Frost & Sullivan, Strand Life Sciences is a portfolio company of Biomark Capital Partners, a San Francisco based global fund for health and life sciences. By enhancing sequence-based diagnostics and clinical genomic data interpretation using a strong foundation of computational, scientific, and medical expertise, Strand is bringing individualized medicine to the world.

For more information, visit www.strandls.com or follow us on twitter @StrandLife.

About El Camino Hospital

El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 443-bed, non-profit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif. In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, genomic medicine, and the only women's hospital in northern California. The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care.

Primary Media Contact: Sudhakar Rao, [email protected], 91-99-16138037

Secondary Media Contact: Preeti Goswami, [email protected], 91-95-35678825