OHMX.bio and Fujirebio Europe receive grant of 720K EURO to incorporate third generation sequencing into clinical in vitro diagnostics platform
OHMX.bio, a provider of cutting-edge “omics” solutions, and Fujirebio Europe announced that they have been awarded a 720K EURO research grant from Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) to develop a clinical in vitro diagnostics (IVD) platform incorporating third generation sequencing (TGS) technologies.
The project, called IVD-seq, will initially focus on a cost-efficient, accurate and portable IVD modular solution for highly polymorphic regions. The partners aim to expand the resulting platform solution to other molecular diagnostic markers.
The IVD-seq project brings together a unique and complementary partnership of clinical IVD expertise from Fujirebio Europe and third generation sequencing based-omics solutions from OHMX.bio to develop a best-in-class IVD solution that completely operates from Flanders, Belgium.
“Next generation sequencing (NGS) has already been incorporated into clinical in vitro diagnostics so there is a significant opportunity to explore the benefits and potential advantages of building an IVD platform incorporating the third generation sequencing (TGS) platforms,” said Prof. Gerben Menschaert, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of OHMX.bio. “Working on this project will illustrate the broad capabilities that OHMX.bio can provide to its partners and we very much look forward to combining our expertise with that of Fujirebio Europe, a true leader in diagnostics.”
“TGS is already providing more accurate and actionable genetic sequencing information. By incorporating this cutting-edge approach into clinical diagnostics, we believe this research could take advantage of this improvement in data, resulting in better diagnostic information that can be utilized for the benefit of patients,” stated Christiaan De Wilde, Chief Executive Officer of Fujirebio Europe.
The aim of the research will be to create a TGS IVD platform by optimizing a multi-layer approach encompassing the initial sample and library preparation, state-of-the-art sequencing technologies and improved genotyping procedures. In addition, the project will strive toward multiplexing related clinical markers within one IVD solution and indexing this in a cost-efficient way over multiple different patient samples.