NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – At the Association for Molecular Pathology annual meeting in San Antonio today, Sophia Genetics announced that it has agreed to integrate Paragon Genomics' CleanPlex target enrichment technologies for next-generation sequencing into its flagship Sophia AI platform.
CleanPlex relies on Hayward, California-based Paragon's amplicon sequencing technology, which removes nonspecific PCR products generated during highly multiplexed PCR reactions. According to Paragon, this 10-minute digestion step is crucial in achieving high-quality libraries before targeted sequencing.
"This partnership greatly expands the universe of cancer experts able to benefit from our proprietary CleanPlex target enrichment technologies," Paragon Genomics Cofounder and CEO Tao Chen said in a statement. "The worldwide launch of this partnership will provide immediate access to our combined solutions, enabling providers to rapidly and precisely identify tumor mutations and improve the throughput, quality, and reliability of their sequencing results."
Sophia CEO and Cofounder Jurgi Camblong added that this partnership will accelerate adoption of what his company calls "data-driven medicine." Switzerland-based Sophia Genetics has its AI platform in 850 hospitals in 72 countries.
Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
Paragon also announced today that it has launched a competition called the CleanPlex UMI Research Award, based on the forthcoming launch of a product called CleanPlex UMI Custom Panels, which incorporate unique molecular identifiers to correct PCR and sequencing errors. The company will choose three to five winners for a custom CleanPlex UMI panel. Cancer researchers in academic, nonprofit, and government settings may apply through Dec. 20, and winners will be announced in January, Paragon said.