Seqera Labs and Genomics England partner to progress genomic research

Seqera Labs, a provider of secure workflow orchestration in the life sciences sector, and government-owned company, Genomics England, have announced a partnership aimed at advancing genomic research analysis.

The collaboration aims to ensure that whole genome analysis is efficiently carried out at a larger scale, help more patients benefit from genomic healthcare and equip researchers with additional data to discover the causes of disease and develop new treatments.

Genomics England works to enhance the UK’s reputation as a global leader in life sciences, by working with the NHS to deliver whole genome sequencing as part of the NHS’s genomic medicine service catered for patients with cancer and rare diseases.

The data collected by Genomic England is currently stored in the national genomic research library and can be accessed by approved researchers through a secure research environment. This allows researchers to develop pioneering understandings of therapeutics and diagnostics. The library has previously been utilised by scientists to propose updated global guideline to advance rare disease diagnosis.

Working alongside each other, Seqera will scale Genomics England’s capabilities in developing models for disease diagnosis, prognosis and treatment responses. Genomics England plans to deploy Seqera’s nextflow tower, a centralised command post that allows large-scale collaborative data analysis to occur. By doing so, Genomics England will be able to efficiently launch, manage and monitor scalable data analysis pipelines within the cloud.

Senior product manager at Genomics England, Edwin Clark, said the company is “continuing to work in partnership with the NHS to harness the potential of genomic medicine, connecting research and clinical care at a national scale so [it] can deliver benefits in diagnosis, treatment, and care for those living with rare conditions and cancer”.

He added that the partnership “will accelerate [the company’s] pipeline development and enable support for hybrid compute environments, helping [it] meet future demands and improve resiliency”.

As the demand for personalised medicine to treat diseases such cancer grows, UK genomics research is being used to provide life-saving therapeutics to patients at an accelerated rate.

Founder and chief executive officer of Seqera, Evan Floden, said: “At a time when budgets are stretched and the UK’s health sector recovers from ripple effects of COVID-19’s disruption, providing technology and a service which streamlines budgets and allows for resources to be reinvested into improving people’s treatment is critical and a key pillar of our operation.”