WuXi NextCODE a fully integrated contract genomics organization (CGO) has partnered with Google Cloud to deliver comprehensive genomics capabilities to partners and customers worldwide [1]. Both Genomics England and the Sidra Medical and Research Center for the genomics and informatics hub of the Qatar Genome Project has selected WuXi NextCODE as their clinical interpretation partner [2].
Google Cloud will host WuXi NextCODE’s core suite of capabilities on Google Cloud and make it available on the Google Cloud Launcher marketplace. These include:
- GORdb – Genomically Ordered Relational database
- WuXi NextCODE secondary analysis
- The Sequence Miner case-control research application
- The Clinical Sequence Analyzer clinical interpretation system
GORdb, was designed specifically to store and analyse huge amounts of genetic code and index new genetic variations from genomes. This facilitates the management of data at the genomic scale.
Conversely, key Google genomics and research tools will be integrated and deployable in tandem with the WuXi NextCODE platform:
- DeepVariant secondary analysis pipeline
- Google Cloud BigQuery
- Other Google Cloud Platform open-source analysis pipelines and tools
DeepVariant was formed from a collaboration with the Google Brain team, applying machine learning to genomics. It uses deep learning to reconstruct genome sequences from high-throughput sequencing data with significantly greater accuracy, albeit slower performance than prior methods. Google BigQuery is an enterprise data warehouse that enables super-fast SQL queries using the processing power of Google’s infrastructure [3].
WuXi NextCODE sells consumer-oriented products in China. This consist of FamilyCODE, a carrier test for prospective parents, RareCODE, a rare disease diagnostic product for children and HealthCODE, which provides a report showing relative risk for 28 common diseases. In 2015, NextCODE was acquired by WuXi AppTec, the China- and US-based open access R&D platform and merged with its Shanghai-based WuXi Genome Center. The result was WuXi NextCODE, a genomics enterprise that combines bioinformatics and human genetics expertise with a full range of certified sequencing [2].
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