NEW YORK – Oxford Nanopore Technologies said Wednesday that it has partnered with Twist Bioscience to launch a pharmacogenomics beta program for personalized medicine.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The PGx beta program will combine Twist’s next-generation sequencing library preparation reagents and target enrichment panels with Oxford Nanopore’s MinIon and PromethIon sequencing platforms to develop long-read PGx workflows.
Currently available for research use, the PGx workflows aim to "provide unambiguous genetic results in a single end-to-end workflow from sample to PGx star allele call," according to Oxford Nanopore, making follow-up testing unnecessary.
The PGx beta program has already achieved full resolution of the CYP2D6 gene in a single assay, Oxford Nanopore said. Additionally, the companies plan to make Twist’s hybrid capture panels, including the Twist Alliance Dark Genes Panel and the Twist Exome 2.0, compatible with Oxford Nanopore's platforms.
"Oxford Nanopore’s technology provides genetic analysis, and through our collaboration and the pharmacogenomics beta program, we’re able to expand the reach of our NGS products and provide researchers with a tool to develop personalized therapies," Twist Cofounder and CEO Emily Leproust said in a statement. "We’re looking forward to progressing through the beta program and exploring additions to our collaboration."
"Combined with Twist’s technology, Oxford Nanopore’s value proposition for PGx lies in the ability to deliver richer data through long reads, ultra-fast sequencing speed, accessible form factor, and flexibility in terms of throughput, making it an ideal choice for comprehensive and efficient genetic analysis in clinical settings," Oxford Nanopore CEO Gordon Sanghera said in a statement.