Saint-Petersburg biotechnological company Sequoia genetics, an Alkor Bio subsidiary, has participated in key annual event in the field of human genetics "Human Genome Meeting 2013". The conference was held in Singapore in April, 13-18.
This is the second time the company takes part in Human Genome Meeting. Last year Sequoia Genetics presented "Cystic Fibrosis - BioChip" microarray kit on HGM-2012 in Sydney. The kit developed by Alkor Bio is intended for the mutation detection in CFTR gene. This time Sequoia Genetics announced its two innovative projects. One of them is "Personalized Genome Diagnostics" - state-of-the-art project aimed at the development of interactive media for whole genome analysis at clinical grade. The other is "Neonatal NGS-based diagnostics" project. The main objective of the project is the development of diagnostic solution based on NGS technology. The solution will be used in diagnostics of severe inherited diseases in newborns and couples planning a family. Both projects are carried out in partnership with Skolkovo Innovation Center.
This year there was a joint conference of Human Genome Meeting 2013 and the 21st International Congress of Genetics. Therefore the conference program included not only human genetics reports, but also covered plant and animal genetics and genetics of microorganisms. In addition to broad scientific program the extensive sci-tech exhibition was presented to the scientific society. Leaders of molecular-genetic diagnostics market announced their developments and innovations. For instance Qaigen Company launched its first sequencer which would compete with current technologies.
"Our projects were especially interesting for researchers working in similar area. We have convinced again that our developments meet the needs of the times. As we expected such diagnostic solutions haven't been announced yet. Our work was enthusiastically perceived not only by researches but also by equipment manufacturers in particular Life Technologies Asia Pacific. We are already cooperating with Life Technologies Europe office. And now Asian office expressed willingness to help Sequoia Genetics find partners in Asia region and establish collaboration" says Alexander Pavlov, Sequoia Genetics CEO.
In addition to participating in the conference Sequoia Genetics specialists visited laboratories of AITbiotech and Vela Diagnostics located in Singapore. These companies as well as Sequoia Genetics concentrate their efforts on translating next generation sequencing data into routine clinical practice. Our Asian colleagues are focused on oncodiagnostics and diagnostics of infectious diseases.
"It would be very interesting to carry out clinical trials of our solution on Asian population since mutation profile in this region is essentially different from Russian and Europe population. Neonatal NGS-based diagnostics is a multiethnic and multiregional solution thus it would be very useful to try the assay in another part of the world. We hope that in Singapore we found partners for conducting clinical trials. Now we are considering possibilities of collecting samples from patients with inherited diseases amongst Asian population" says Alexander Pavlov.
The conference united specialists from more than 30 countries. Every year Human Genome Meeting is going on in different places so that such considerable event can be available for international scientific society. A lot of researchers from Singapore, Malaysia, China and India visited conference this year. Russia was presented by 3 research groups whose projects were shown during the poster session. Sequoia Genetics was one of them. Next time HGM-2014 will be held in Geneva, Switzerland.