University of Glasgow spinout enters oncology collaboration with Congenica
Published: 3 February 2021
Gabriel Precision Oncology Limited (known as Gabriel) – a University of Glasgow spinout company – announces an important oncology collaboration with Congenica.
Gabriel Precision Oncology Limited (known as Gabriel) – a University of Glasgow spinout company – announces an important oncology collaboration with Congenica.
Congenica is a digital health company enabling rapid and accurate analysis of complex genomic data to transform people’s lives. Working together, the two teams will develop a new highly automated somatic cancer clinical interpretation software platform, which will support the use of multiple genomic assays in routine clinical practice.
Professor Biankin’s team at the University of Glasgow have developed software – a pipeline that detects mutations in the genome specifically for the analysis of sequencing data from cancer samples. The pipeline is able to detect all the different types of genomic variants that are relevant for cancer with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, and has been optimised to produce high quality data from sequencing of formalin exposed DNA.
Importantly, the collaboration will allow customers to use a single platform to analyse all types of mutations from different cancer gene panels, thereby overcoming a substantial challenge in oncology diagnostics and representing a major step forward for pathologists, haematologists and oncologists globally.
Gabriel was founded by Professor Andrew Biankin, Dr Susanna Cooke and Dr Philip Beer. Between them, the founders have deep expertise and experience in cancer genomics and therapeutic development, encompassing the commercial, healthcare and academic sectors, and have played influential roles in national and international genomics consortia.
Congenica has developed know-how and IP in the field of bioinformatics, genomics, software development and data architecture which it uses to develop commercial clinical decision support platforms using genomic data. Utilising this know-how, Congenica will work with Gabriel to build a platform that will support the interpretation of somatic cancer genomic data for both research and clinical diagnostic use. By incorporating the platform into clinical testing, the aim is that next generation sequencing can be more widely integrated into routine molecular pathology testing, driving efficiency in the diagnostic process.
Freddie Sharkey, PhD, VP Oncology & EMEA Sales, said: “This collaboration signifies the expansion of Congenica’s product platform into somatic cancer, a disease area which we believe can significantly benefit from our platform. Gabriel brings together extensive international genomics expertise and its platform has been developed specifically to work with tumour derived DNA. We look forward to working with Gabriel to further incorporate clinical genomics into routine cancer care.”
Andrew Biankin, University of Glasgow and Gabriel, said: “Still too few people have access to advanced molecular cancer diagnostics and as a consequence miss out on potential treatments and clinical trials. A distributed model where laboratories and health systems around the world can do their own tests for their own patients using a standardised and comparable analytical platform will enable more patients to access precision medicine. Congenica’s technology is market-leading in terms of the rapid interpretation of genomic data and working together we believe that our platform will enable many more cancer patients to access new treatments.”
About Congenica
Congenica is a digital health company enabling the rapid analysis and interpretation of genomic data, empowering researchers to provide life-changing answers that will in future improve wellbeing and disease management.
Congenica’s world-leading software enables rapid genomic data analysis at scale, performing 20x faster than industry averages and providing a 30% higher analytical yield, reducing genomic interpretation costs by up to 95%.
Born out of pioneering research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the NHS, Congenica has a global footprint supporting leading international laboratories, academic medical centres and biopharmaceutical companies and is the exclusive Clinical Decision Support partner for the NHS Genomic Medicine Service.
About Gabriel
Gabriel Precision Oncology Limited was established in 2020 to make precision oncology a reality for all cancer patients.
Gabriel is founded on a deep understanding of the entire clinical cancer pathway, including diagnostics, stratification, standard of care therapy and experimental treatment approaches. Through their combined experience, gleaned from leaderships roles in healthcare delivery, academic research and commercial drug development, the Gabriel team are focussed on democratising access to genomic analysis for cancer patients to maximise the benefits of current therapies and expedite the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
First published: 3 February 2021
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