Landmark deCODE Studies Demonstrate the Power of Truly Big Genomics for Improving Medicine Worldwide

-- Clinicians, researchers and population genomics programs around the world can build on this unique national effort to use the genome to better prevent, diagnose and treat disease

SHANGHAI, CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts and REYKJAVIK, Iceland, March 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi NextCODE, which provides comprehensive capabilities for using the genome to create better medicine, today congratulated the scientists at deCODE genetics on their publication of the largest studies of whole-genome data yet undertaken.

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The studies – published today online in Nature Genetics – are built around the most comprehensive population-wide tally to date of sequence variation, authored by a team of deCODE scientists led by Kari Stefansson, deCODE's founder and CEO. They provide the largest and most detailed set of common as well as rare allele frequencies, critical for advancing more efficient diagnostics; a population-wide collection of human knockouts; and new risk factors for Alzheimer's and a range of other diseases.

"The sequencing revolution promises to transform the power and practice of medicine, and deCODE's unique assets and approach in Iceland are giving the world a picture of just how much this revolution can deliver," said Jeffrey Gulcher, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of WuXi NextCODE, from the ACMG Annual Clinical Genomics Meeting in Salt Lake City. "deCODE and Amgen are to be congratulated on these results and they are expanding the scientific power of their own findings by enabling others to build on this work. Our technology, which was originally developed at deCODE, is helping to do that by providing other groups in other populations with the same proven system whose power is on full display today."

WuXi NextCODE offers uniquely comprehensive and integrated capabilities for using the genome to create better medicine. These include a full range of sequencing through our CLIA-certified laboratory; the world's leading genome sequence analysis system; a novel database architecture that makes it possible to query, manage, store and share massive genomic data with unrivalled speed and efficiency; and the know-how and experience to apply genomics to optimize every aspect of drug development. With offices in Shanghai, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Reykjavik, we enable clinicians and researchers at institutions and companies worldwide to use the full power of the whole genome to better diagnose and treat disease.

Contact:
Edward Farmer
efarmer@wuxinextcode.com
+1 781 775 6206