A French molecular diagnostics company specializing in the development of diagnostic tests for genetic diseases and cancers based on molecular combing technology – Genomic Vision – has signed a strategic partnership with the University-Hospital Institute (IHU) Imagine, the largest European genetic research and care cluster.
According to Genomic Vision’s Thursday press release, the FiberVision molecular combing platform has been installed by the Genomic Vision team at the Institute’s campus of the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, which cares for 40,000 patients each year, more than half of which have genetic diseases.
This public-private partnership fits with Genomic Vision’s strategy for the university hospital market: to form strategic collaborations with Centers of Excellence in genetic diseases and oncogenetics in order to make its innovative technology widely available in medical and academic settings.
The purpose of this collaboration with the IHU Imagine is to identify pathologies caused by complex structural variations that are difficult to identify with existing methods, thus contributing to the creation of new genetic tests that benefit patients and will enrich the Genomic Vision’s product portfolio.
“In order to cure a genetic disease, it is first necessary to identify the genes responsible, characterize their mutations and understand the disruptions they generate. This is particularly difficult in the case of large rearrangements within the genome, which are almost undetectable with conventional technologies. Genomic Vision’s molecular combing will considerably reinforce our ability to explore those mutations that give rise to numerous pathologies, in order to treat them better,” comments Professor Arnold Munnich, M.D., Founder and Director of the Department of Genetics at Necker-Enfants malades Hospital.
Aaron Bensimon, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Genomic Vision, concludes: “The installation of our FiberVision molecular combing platform in the heart of the largest European genetic research and care cluster is an important advancement for Genomic Vision.”
“This partnership allows us to share our technological know-how in molecular diagnostics with the researchers at the Imagine Institute and create synergies for developing new diagnostic tests that will benefit many patients. The tests arising from this collaboration may create important growth engines for Genomic Vision in new indications with strong potential, while complementing our ongoing developments.”