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Genuity Science and Nashville Biosciences will work together to maximise on a biorepository of genomics data, furthering drug development and disease treatment.
Genuity Science, formerly Genomics Medicine Ireland, has today (4 August) announced a partnership with Nashville Biosciences to discover disease targets and biomarkers, advance biopharmaceutical research and develop new medicines.
Nashville Biosciences is a subsidiary of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which contributes significantly to research and development in the life sciences sector through its clinico-genomic repositories, one of the world’s largest and highest-quality genome banks. Clinico-genomics assesses the genome or genetic make-up of a person, using it to inform the best diagnosis or treatment for their specific disease.
The facilities at Nashville Biosciences allow it to leverage the repositories at VUMC, where the BioVU biorepository currently has around 250,000 banked DNA samples. The samples are linked to “de-identified medical records with more than 10 years of longitudinal clinical data”.
Aligning with Genuity Science’s combination of whole genome sequencing data and clinical phenotypic information, the partnership will offer an “opportunity for unparalleled scientific insights for therapeutic advancement”.
The biosamples from Nashville Biosciences will be processed at Genuity Science’s Dublin facility in Cherrywood, where biopharma industry partners will be able to access it securely and under controlled conditions.
Dr Leeland Ekstrom, chief operating officer of Nashville Biosciences, said that the collaboration with Genuity Science will allow his team to “maximise the impact” of its biorepository, “supporting research and accelerating drug discovery and development”.
“We were impressed by how well aligned our two organisations are in both scientific approach and rigor applied to data security and compliance.” Ekstrom added. “We look forward to a long and productive relationship with Genuity spanning multiple disease areas.”
Dr Anne Jones, chief operating officer of Genuity Science, said adding Nashville Biosciences’ clinical data to Genuity Science’s own database “will help create some of the largest disease datasets in the world.
“The potential for drug discovery and development from these datasets combined with our existing, more homogenous Irish dataset is truly unmatched. We are very proud to partner with this well-regarded research institution.”
