Roche is set to partner with Broad Clinical Labs for developing pilot applications leveraging its next-generation sequencing (NGS) Sequencing By Expansion (SBX) technology.
This partnership aims to revolutionise clinical genomics and biomedical discovery by leveraging the technology.
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The initial focus of this partnership will be on trio-based whole genome sequencing for critically ill newborns and their biological parents.
Broad Clinical Labs plans to implement this technology to facilitate quick diagnoses in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), potentially enhancing outcomes for infants with genetic disorders, like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.
According to Roche, SBX technology is an advancement in NGS, providing rapid turnaround times, cost efficiency, and scalability.
The technology’s workflow is said to be suited to urgent clinical settings like NICUs and for research of multi-omic discovery.
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By GlobalDataFurthermore, the partnership will use SBX technology for ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing applications, including both single-cell and bulk methods.
The longer reads provided by the technology could lead to discoveries in understanding the mechanism of the disease and therapeutic target identification.
Researchers from the Broad Institute will be among the first to use the new system.
Roche noted that its NGS technology is tailored to surpass traditional sequencing method limitations, delivering high accuracy with the speed and flexibility required for various genomic applications.
The SBX technology’s scalability is enhanced by a high-throughput complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor module, facilitating quick, real-time base calls and analysis for diverse project sizes.
The SBX chemistry was invented by Stratos Genomics co-founders Mark Kokoris and Robert McRuer.
Roche Diagnostics CEO Matt Sause said: “The SBX technology was designed with both clinical impact and scientific discovery in mind, and offers the next-generation of fast, scalable sequencing solutions.”
Before this development, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Roche’s VENTANA MET (SP44) RxDx Assay to assist in determining the expression of mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET or c-Met) protein in individuals with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
