Verge Genomics joins Genomics England's Discovery Forum to transform pioneering research into frontline patient treatments

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading artificial intelligence therapeutics company Verge Genomics and Genomics England – the UK Department of Health and Social Care-owned company sequencing 100,000 patient genomes − announced today that Verge will join Genomics England's Discovery Forum industry partnership. The partnership aims to translate groundbreaking research into innovative treatments, and ultimately patient benefit, as rapidly as possible.

Genomics England leads a £300 million project aimed at sequencing 100,000 genomes from around 70,000 people with rare disease and cancer in the UK. Combining this with their health data will enable more diagnoses and improved personalized treatments for patients in the future. Genomics England's Discovery Forum provides an engagement platform for industry partners, academia, the NHS, and the wider genomics community. More than 30 of the world's leading genomics companies come together within the Forum to work in a pre-competitive environment with access to whole genome sequences from the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Verge brings additional strengths to the Discovery Forum, with its extensive and growing network of data partnerships. In late 2017, Verge announced two public-private partnerships with a dozen academic and national institutions, leading to the creation one of the world's largest collections of ALS and Parkinson's Disease patient data. In January 2018, Verge announced a collaboration with Datavant, a Roivant Sciences-backed company focused on data aggregation to improve clinical trials, to unlock the value of one of the world's most extensive collections of patient genomes and clinical data.

Alice Zhang, Verge Genomics CEO, said:

"Verge is committed to integrating datasets held by industry, academic and government partners, because we believe that shared understanding will drive ever more effective treatments for patients around the world. We are honored to share this mission with Genomics England."

Professor Joanne Hackett, Genomics England Chief Commercial Officer, said:

"Industrial partnership is critical to unlocking the true potential of genomic medicine. In combining the unique scale and richness of the Genomics England dataset with the expertise and relentless innovation of companies such as Verge, we can rapidly turn pioneering research into frontline patient care."

About Genomics England

Genomics England is a company owned by the Department of Health and was set up to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project. This flagship project will sequence 100,000 whole genomes from NHS patients and their families.

Genomics England has four main aims:

• to bring benefit to patients
• to create an ethical and transparent programme based on consent
• to enable new scientific discovery and medical insights
• to kickstart the development of a UK genomics industry

The project is focusing on patients with rare diseases, and their families, as well as patients with common cancers.

About Verge Genomics

Verge Genomics is a next-generation therapeutics company that is using human genomic data to accelerate drug discovery. Founded by scientists from leading neuro-genomics labs, the Verge team is 14 people including 12 Ph.D.'s in machine learning, neuroscience, applied math, biophysics, statistics, and computational biology from UCLA, Stanford, Oxford, UCSF, and the pharmaceutical sector. For additional information, please visit http://www.vergegenomics.com.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Verge Genomics

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