DUBLIN – “Welcome to the conversation,” Abbvie Inc.’s head of genomic research, Howard Jacob, an early pioneer of genomics-driven medicine, told delegates during a keynote address at the Genomics Summit 2020 event Jan. 23. Ireland is very much a latecomer to that conversation and it has yet, as a country, to figure out what the shape of its contribution to the genomic era of medicine is going to be.
Genome sequencing is enabling new insights into the genetic aspects of health and disease that have touched just about every aspect in biomedicine. It is also, like the “skin”-colored crayons of yore, disproportionately focused on the Caucasian segment of the population. And that is a loss for everyone.
LONDON – Twenty years on from sequencing of the first draft of the human genome and the associated hype, 2019 was the year that the science of genomics truly began to make an impact in health care.
St. Louis-based Pieriandx, a clinical genomics informatics company, reported that it has closed a $27 million series B funding round led by Atw Partners and Sjf Ventures. Pieriandx provides a software-as-a-service platform that the company says permits the practice of clinical genomics as a standard of care.