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Big data genomics nyc edico genome presentation
Edico Genome is a San Diego-based company that has developed a reconfigurable Bio-IT Processor, called DRAGEN, that speeds the analysis of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data from sequencing instruments, such as Illumina’s HiSeq X Ten, Thermo Fischer’s Ion Proton Sequencer and Pacific Biosciences’ PacBio RS II. The company was founded in 2013 by Pieter van Rooyen, Ph.D., CEO, Robert McMillen, Ph.D., vice president of engineering, and Michael Ruehle, director of system architecture. Edico Genome is a graduate of EvoNexus, a San Diego technology incubator.
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In December 2014, Edico Genome's DRAGEN Bio-IT Processor was awarded the number one spot on The Scientist Top 10 Innovations of 2014 list. In September, 2015, Edico Genome and the Children's Mercy Kansas City published results of a study showing the successful diagnosis of critically ill newborns in just 26 hours using DRAGEN. Prior to this study, the world's fastest diagnosis of critically ill newborns using whole genome sequencing was 50 hours.
In April 2016, Stephen Kingsmore, M.D., D.Sc., president and CEO of Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine at Rady Children's Hospital – San Diego, became the official title holder of the Guinness World Records® designation for fastest genetic diagnosis, which he accomplished by successfully diagnosing critically ill newborns in just 26 hours, as published in the journal Genome Medicine. The feat was made possible by several technologies, including Edico Genome's genomics data crunching computer chip, DRAGEN, and one of Illumina's high-throughput sequencing instruments.The whole process took 26 hours from blood sample to initial diagnosis.
Edico Genome raised $10 million in Series A financing in July 2014, which was led by Qualcomm Ventures and included Axon Ventures and Gregory T. Lucier, the former chairman and CEO of Life Technologies.
Following the advent of the $1000 genome, enabled by Illumina’s HiSeq X Ten, the amount of data generated by next-generation sequencing has increased exponentially, and is outpacing Moore’s Law. DRAGEN is a reconfigurable Bio-IT Processor that is integrated on a PCIe card and is provided with accompanying software as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). The processor is loaded with highly optimized algorithms for the full NGS secondary analysis pipeline, including decompression, mapping, aligning, sorting, deduplication, compression and haplotype variant calling, and can be integrated directly into next-generation sequencing machines and bioinformatics servers.
The processor reduces the time needed to analyze a whole human genome, from 24 hours to 18 minutes. It also reduces associated costs as it replaces the high-end computer servers otherwise needed for genome analysis as well as the required IT infrastructure, without compromising accuracy.
DRAGEN launched in 2014 and is currently available for purchase. Edico Genome made its first sale of DRAGEN in September 2014 to Sequenom, a San Diego company focused on non-invasive prenatal testing.
Edico Genome’s board of directors includes Lucier, Eric Topol , M.D., professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute; Charles Cantor, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Sequenom; and Nils Homer, Ph.D., genomics informatics leader at the Broad Institute. The Series A investment was Lucier’s first following Life Technologies’ purchase by Thermo Fisher.