Sequence-based clinical diagnostics firm and deCODE genetics spinout NextCODE Health is partnering with the Academic Centre on Rare Diseases (ACoRD) at University College Dublin, allowing ACoRD to use NextCODE products in research aimed at learning more about the causes and better ways to diagnose autism and rare diseases.
NextCODE's Clinical Sequence Analyzer™, which the firm says can identify causal mutations in families with different rare disorders, and Sequence Miner and the GOR™ database infrastructure, to be used for mining whole-genome data for sequence variants linked to autism spectrum disorders, are among the technologies to be used.
Sean Ennis, Ph.D., director at ACoRD, UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, and co-founder of the Irish Autism Genetics Collaboration said in a statement that ACoRD wants to establish a reputation for being a center of excellence in the field of rare genomics. “Sequencing is a powerful means to identify the causes of disease, but it requires the ability to efficiently store and query truly vast amounts of data. NextCODE's system has done this on an unparalleled scale, and can deliver diagnoses on a case-by case basis and enable large-scale discovery efforts,” he added.
NextCODE Health was launched with $15 million in venture capital back in October after securing a five-year exclusive license for sequence-based clinical diagnostic applications using technology developed by deCODE genetics. NextCODE says the deCODE system has enabled over 350 publications in gene discovery, diagnostics, and medical applications.
