Healthcare technology company SOPHiA GENETICS is launching SOPHiA UNITY, a new global data-driven consortium to advance precision cancer research and medicine. The consortium will “progress a shared goal of furthering cancer research, advancing drug development and supporting data-driven patient care,” the company said in a May 30 press release. The first member to join is Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. SOPHiA says Additional members will be announced in the coming months.
Just a day before, SOPHiA announced it is collaborating with Microsoft and NVIDIA to develop a “streamlined and scalable” whole genome sequencing (WGS) analytical solution, with the aim to make the solution available to customers before the end of the year.
“By leveraging the powerful technologies and capabilities offered by Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA, we are working to provide accurate, scalable, and rapid insights across multiple modalities, helping benefit our customers and, patients, particularly those living with rare inherited disorders,” said Abhimanyu Verma, chief technology officer, SOPHiA GENETICS.
This new consortium is another step forward for the company.
“SOPHiA UNITY will usher in the next era of precision medicine innovation by bringing together best-in-class institutions that are committed to the advancement of oncology research and the use of data-driven medicine. We are extremely optimistic about the insights this collective intelligence network will generate to further our shared goal,” said Jurgi Camblong, PhD, co-founder and CEO of SOPHiA GENETICS.
The company says that to advance the adoption of precision oncology, it is crucial to have access to large-scale data from a wide range of modalities (such as imaging, genomics, pathology and clinical notes), and diverse sets of patient profiles. “Currently, no single institution globally collects the necessary volume and diversity of information to propel the healthcare field forward. SOPHiA GENETICS has launched SOPHiA UNITY to answer that need and meet the demand for high-quality, diverse data at scale, aiming to drive a new era of precision oncology research,” they say in the press release.
The collective intelligence network will use SOPHiA CarePath, the multimodal module on the SOPHiA DDM Platform, to aggregate and analyze complex real-world data. This data will be harmonized and curated using SOPHiA GENETICS’ AI-based technology and proprietary algorithms. Through SOPHiA GENETICS’ platform and CarePath offering, SOPHiA UNITY members will have access to data-driven insights that will support decision-making and expedite oncology research.
“At SOPHiA GENETICS, we have mastered the challenge of harmonizing and connecting genomic data and have the capabilities to do the same with other modalities through our CarePath module,” said Camblong.
“I am looking forward to participating in the new data-driven consortium and partnering with other institutions to draw deeper insights from our collective data,” said Mrinal Gounder, MD, sarcoma oncologist, early drug development specialist, and physician ambassador to India and Asia, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Leading academic cancer centers are eligible to join the SOPHiA UNITY collective intelligence network and gather insights that can be implemented locally.
