Congenica said today it will provide diagnostic decision support services for the just-launched National Health Service (NHS) Genomic Medicine Service, through a multi-year contract with Genomics England whose value was not disclosed.
Based in Cambridge, U.K., at the Welcome Genome Campus, Congenica is a provider of clinical genomics interpretation software. The company has developed the clinical genomics analysis platform Sapientia, designed to analyze, interpret, and generate clinically actionable reports on patient derived genomic data.
Launched this month, the NHS Genomic Medicine Service will include a network of genomic laboratory hubs around the U.K. designed to serve patients with a variety of needs. Through the service, patients with rare and inherited diseases as well as cancer will be able to access genomic testing—an area of focus for Sapientia.
“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,” Congenica CEO David Atkins, Ph.D., said in a statement.
Genomics England is the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care entity created to run the 100,000 Genomes Project—which is among users of Sapientia.
According to Congenica, Sapientia, has already been extensively validated on approximately 10,000 genomes during the 100,000 Genomes Project. The project—among initiatives launched by 10 nations toward gathering, storing, and applying genomic data from at least 100,000 genomes—takes its name from the 100,000 whole genomes it has committed to sequencing from around 70,000 NHS patient with cancer and rare diseases.
Congenica’s clinical scientists have used Sapientia for clinical analysis and genomic interrogation, to generate comprehensive, actionable clinical reports.
“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,” added Genomics England CEO Prof. John Mattick, Ph.D.
“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.”
