PierianDx and University Hospital of Augsburg Announce Strategic Partnership

On May 5, 2020 PierianDx, the leading clinical genomics informatics company, and University Hospital of Augsburg reported a strategic development partnership to optimize an interpretation and reporting workflow based on the PierianDx Clinical Genomics Workspace platform for the AmpliSeq for Illumina Myeloid and Focus assays (Press release, PierianDx, MAY 5, 2020, View Source [SID1234557055]). Under the agreement, University Hospital of Augsburg will use the PierianDx Clinical Genomics Workspace to create an out-of-the-box bioinformatics and clinical genomics reporting workflow optimized for these AmpliSeq assays and tailored to the specific needs of the European market.

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The AmpliSeq Myeloid and Focus assays accommodate DNA or RNA samples and investigate a number of genes, gene fusions, or expression levels with known relevance to solid- and blood-based cancers. These assays, already in use by University Hospital of Augsburg, are a key part of the hospital’s overall plan to expand its NGS testing program to offer precision medicine treatments to the community it serves.

As assays become more sophisticated, interpretation and reporting have usurped library preparation and sequencing as the most complex portion of the workflow. Manually interpreting each case is simply not scalable, especially with frequently changing literature, guidelines, and clinical trials.

To address these challenges, University Hospital of Augsburg will use the PierianDx Clinical Genomics Workspace, which includes a highly curated, rules-based knowledgebase and clinical sharing network for the rapid classification of variants. Concurrent to its use of Clinical Genomics Workspace, University Hospital of Augsburg will work with PierianDx on an ongoing basis to refine a European market-specific reporting workflow for the AmpliSeq assays. The result will be a refined clinical genomics report, complete with assay-specific variant filters, that is optimized with European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) guidelines, EMA drug labels, and active and recruiting European clinical trials, all of which have been included in the PierianDx platform since 2019.

Sebastian Dintner, Head of Molecular Pathology, University Hospital of Augsburg, states: "We are happy to work with PierianDx to optimize the workflow and pioneer one of the first region-specific reporting solutions for the AmpliSeq assays. By doing so, we will be able to accomplish our mission of expanding our precision medicine offerings to provide advanced cancer care for our patients."

"As we provide streamlined interpretation and supporting solutions for leading assay manufacturers, it’s imperative that we acknowledge region-specific needs of the market," states Rakesh Nagarajan, Founder, President, and Chief Technology and Visionary Officer of PierianDx. "We are excited to partner with University Hospital of Augsburg because it helps us refine our system for the European market."