Clinical OMICS

NOV-DEC 2017

Healthcare magazine for research scientists, labs, pathologists, hospitals, cancer centers, physicians and biopharma companies providing news articles, expert interviews and videos about molecular diagnostics in precision medicine

Issue link: https://clinicalomics.epubxp.com/i/898657

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 14 of 47

www.clinicalomics.com November/December 2017 Clinical OMICs 13 The addition of Fabric Enterprise to provide actionable information based on a patient's genomic profile should prove beneficial to Genome Medical as it looks to build its national foot- print. Bleyl noted that Fabric "had the complete package. The way the data was organized and how they generate reports clearly provides insight our counselors and physicians can use for the benefit of patients." Both companies see the increas- ing value of genomic information for health and wellness, and the ability for individuals to tap the data, as needed, throughout their lives. "Knowledge of how genetics influences health contin- ues to increase," Bleyl noted. "We'll know much more in five years than we do now. So, a patient whose genetic data may not yield an answer today, could get an answer next year or the year after, based on new research. That is what we see as the future of genomic medicine." For Fabric, the deal with Genome Medical further helps build its pres- ence in the clinical market of provid- ing clinical decision support services via genomic data interpretation and with a partner that clearly embraces a genomic model of medicine. "By combining our expertise in genome interpretation with Genome Medical's team of physicians and genetic counselors, we can offer patients and physicians a clinical solu- tion by combining genomic knowl- edge with patient care to improve their health," Martin Reese, Ph.D., CEO of Fabric Genomics, said in a press release. "Genome Medical brings a critical missing link to patients through their world-class genetic medical expertise, plus a strong med- ical practice foundation. This partner- ship is key to helping both patients and [their] clinicians understand their genetic variants and discover if they have a disease, or are at risk of devel- oping a disease." Since announcing its collabora- tion with Genome Medical, Fabric has continued to build its relation- ships with other health systems and genomic research efforts both within the U.S. and beyond. In late October, it announced new and ongoing part- nerships with Genomics England's 100,000 Genomes Project, Rady Chil- dren's Institute for Genomic Medicine (see story on page 16), and The Utah Genome Project (UGP), all focused on speedy and accurate identification of pediatric disease-causing genetic variants. The newest of these partnerships, with UGP, will see the two work closely with phenotyping application company FDNA and its Face2Gene technology to detect disease-related facial features to potentially identify associated gene variations that cause disease, especially in children. Fabric Genomics has integrated Face2Gene into its Opal Clinical platform to facilitate comprehensive and precise genetic evaluations. "Many leading institutions are using Fabric Genomics' platform to identify disease-causing variants and these findings are demonstrating to be life-saving for children in the NICU/ PICU, pediatric diagnostic odyssey cases, and for patients who undergo testing hereditary diseases and oncol- ogy," noted Reese. "As more clinicians see the positive effect of genomics testing, and the cost for sequencing continues to go down, we will see that genomics will become part of main- stream medicine." TGen, UCSF Leverage Genomics in Clinical Trial for Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients A study led by the Translational Genom- ics Research Institute ( TGen), UC San Francisco (UCSF) and the Ivy Foundation Early Phase Clinical Trials Consortium, showed that several patients with recur- ring glioblastoma survived for more than a year in a clinical employing compre- hensive DNA and RNA sequencing of a patient's tumor to inform treatment. "This study demonstrates the feasibil- ity of using genome-wide molecular tests to guide treatment in recurrent glioblas- toma," according to a scientific paper pub- lished today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Key to this study was the fact that all genomic sequencing, genetic analysis, and recommendations for treatment were completed in less than 35 days after surgery, ensuring that suggested therapies could begin within "a clinically acceptable time frame." For the research, more than 180 FDA-approved agents were reviewed, including all FDA-approved oncology drugs and a selection of repositioned agents that are approved by the FDA for other indications but show promising activity against cancer pathways. Drugs were selected based on the genomic data for each patient, each drug's abil- ity to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, potential opportunities to combine treatments, drug-to-drug interactions, and drug-safety profiles. akesak / Getty Images

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Clinical OMICS - NOV-DEC 2017