Edico Genome's DRAGEN to Accelerate Whole Genome and Exome Sequencing Analysis for Johns Hopkins Genomics

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Edico Genome today announced that Johns Hopkins Genomics, a new entity combining Johns Hopkins University's research and clinical genomics services, has acquired Edico Genome's DRAGEN™ Bio-IT Processor in order to further evaluate its utility in meeting an increased demand for whole genome and whole exome sequencing. DRAGEN's pipelines will be evaluated for integration into existing workflows and for utilization across the institute to support the upsurge in both research and clinical testing by rapidly accelerating analysis times and reducing storage requirements.

Johns Hopkins Genomics is preparing infrastructure for rapid and/or large-scale whole genome analysis for potential large research cohorts such as those associated with precision medicine programs, as well as where indicated for clinical use. Johns Hopkins Genomics is also using clinical exome sequencing to diagnose and study a broad range of conditions.

"The DRAGEN platform's scalability and speed makes it an ideal solution for the institute, particularly as it achieves operational synergies by sharing state-of-the-art, cost-saving technologies across its clinical and research applications," said Pieter van Rooyen, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Edico Genome.

Johns Hopkins Genomics recently moved into its new building at 1812 Ashland Street in East Baltimore's Science and Technology Park, part of the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Medical Campus. Johns Hopkins Genomics consolidates two major research groups – the Center for Inherited Disease Research and Johns Hopkins' Genetic Resources Core Facility – and two clinical genomics groups – the Molecular Pathology Division and the DNA Diagnostics Lab – into one facility, allowing clinical and research investigators to pool their respective areas of expertise. Johns Hopkins Genomics is a partnership between the Johns Hopkins McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and the Department of Pathology.   

DRAGEN is highly reconfigurable, using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide hardware-accelerated implementations of genome pipeline algorithms, such as BCL conversion, compression, mapping, alignment, sorting, duplicate marking and haplotype variant calling. DRAGEN supports multiple input and output formats and can stream BCL data directly from sequencer storage, enabling the customer to go directly from raw sequencing data to an output VCF. In addition to whole genome and exome pipelines, the platform includes transcriptome, joint genotyping, and methylation pipelines, and allows users to develop custom algorithms as well as refine and improve existing pipelines. Updated versions are made available for customers through simple remote downloads.

Join Edico Genome, Johns Hopkins Genomics and other industry leaders for a panel discussion about barriers and breakthroughs in precision medicine and how they are using DRAGEN to support their work. The panel will feature Kim Doheny, Ph.D., lead co-principal investigator and director of the Center for Inherited Disease Research, and co-director of Johns Hopkins Genomics. The event will take place at the 2016 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 7:15 a.m. PT. Register for the event by visiting Edico's website.

About Edico Genome

Edico Genome has created the world's first bioinformatics processor designed to analyze next-generation sequencing data, DRAGEN™. The use of next-generation sequencing is growing at an unprecedented pace, creating a need for a technology that can process this big data rapidly and accurately. Edico Genome's computing platform has been shown to speed whole genome data analysis from hours to minutes, while maintaining high accuracy and reducing costs, enabling clinicians and researchers to reveal answers more quickly. For more information, visit www.EdicoGenome.com or follow @EdicoGenome.

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SOURCE Edico Genome

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