Genomics England, the UK government-owned company behind the 100,000 Genomes Project, has named Congenica as its partner to deliver diagnostic decision support services.
This is an important part of the NHS Genomic Medicines Service infrastructure being assembled, and will help translate genomic tests into actionable clinical reports for doctors to use.
The initiative, which was rolled out for testing on cancer patients or those with rare and inherited diseases earlier this month, will provide clinical information on 100,000 patients, a number that is expected to rise to one million over the next five years.
The end game for the UK government-established Genomics England is to create an end-to-end genome medicine service within the NHS – an area where England could become a world leader.
Professor John Mattick, Chief Executive of Genomics England, commented: “By working with Congenica from the start of the 100,000 Genomes Project, we’ve been able to provide high quality variant interpretation of genome sequences to the NHS, helping deliver benefits to patients at scale.
“Now that we are embarking on the next exciting step in our journey to embed genomic medicine in healthcare, Congenica will continue to play an important role with Genomics England in delivering results to clinicians and diagnoses to patients.”
Congenica’s role will be a supportive one, offering up its Sapientia programme, a diagnostic decision support platform that enables clinicians to examine the human genome. This will allow for the identification of disease-causing variants.
Congenica’s CEO, Dr David Atkins said: “Genomics England and the NHS have done extraordinary work in building the foundations for the Genomic Medicine Service.
“We feel privileged to continue to be part of this initiative and to be a contributor to the world’s first service of this kind. While we have many other customers who have subjected us to rigorous evaluation, we are particularly proud to have beaten a very competitive field in this competition.”
The 100,000 Genomes Project has broad potential, and could be used to help accelerate drug discovery and development. The plan is to also integrate the data into an individual’s medical records, which could be a world first for any health service.