WuXi NextCODE selected as clinical interpretation partner for 100,000 Genomes project

The company will interpret samples in rare disease and cancer as part of the project, which is being undertaken by Genomics England.

The project intends to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from about 70,000 participants with various types of cancer or rare diseases.

Participants will be NHS patients with a rare disease, their families, and patients with cancer.

The project intends to allow new scientific discovery, medical insights and diagnostics.

After completion, the NHS will be able to provide genomic medicine and personalised treatments to patients with conditions that are difficult to treat at present.

WuXi NextCODE’s database model and clinical and tumor-normal analysis and reporting systems will allow NHS clinicians to analyze patient sequence data and find causative variants in rare diseases and driver mutations in tumors.

Genomics England bioinformatics director Augusto Rendon said: "We are delighted to be working with WuXi NextCODE. Their sequence analysis platform will help us to return high quality variant interpretation results back to clinicians and make a direct impact on patient care."

Last week, Genomics England selected Cognizant as a technology partner to help design and implement the IT operating environment for the project.