Mount Sinai Health System announced today that it will extend its work with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals through the Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC), to perform whole exome sequencing (WES) on 33,000 DNA and plasma samples housed in Mount Sinai’s BioMe™ Biobank—one of the first biobank repositories in the country to link DNA sequencing data to clinical information stored within the electronic medical record (EMR).
“The Mount Sinai BioMe Biobank is distinguished by its rich diversity in patient populations linked to electronic medical records,” explained Judy Cho, M.D., professor of translational genetics and medicine and director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We are extremely pleased to enter into this collaboration with the RGC to develop high-quality sequence data from the BioMe cohort. This partnership provides an important means of more efficiently personalizing medical care throughout the Mount Sinai Health System.”
The BioMe Biobank constitutes one of the largest sample collections in the United States that can be used for the analysis and sequencing of genetic material and comparison to long-term health outcomes. The RGC will perform WES to generate de-identified genomic data and analyze that data alongside EMRs, to discover actionable insights about human diseases that may be applied to drug discovery and development. The size and scope of the study—one of the largest of its kind—is meant to allow greater precision in identifying and validating the associations between genes and human disease, as well as potentially pinpointing more effective therapies for patients.
“We are excited to work with Regeneron, global leaders in advanced sequencing technology, analysis, and translational medicine,” noted Erik Lium, Ph.D., senior vice president of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. “This has the potential to dramatically change outcomes, ensuring a deeper understanding of disease and paving the way for therapeutic discoveries.”
“This marks Regeneron’s second, recent collaboration with Mount Sinai, an important neighbor in the New York bioscience community,” stated Alan Shuldiner, M.D., vice president and co-head of the RGC. “The pairing of Mount Sinai’s clinical excellence and Regeneron’s expertise in genetics-based research and therapeutic development holds enormous promise for discoveries that could ultimately benefit patients around the globe.”
