Consistent with its strategy to expand in the growing non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) market in Europe, leading life sciences company Illumina Inc. ( ILMN ) has entered into three separate partnership agreements. The company announced that, per the terms of the respective deals, Biomnis, Genoma, and the Center for Human Genetics and Laboratory Diagnostics Martinsrieduse will use Illumina's HiSeq 2500 and consumables in order to develop and perform NIPT in several locations of Europe. Illumina strongly believes such strategic partnerships will act as a major breakthrough in establishing it as a forerunner in reproductive and genetic health solutions worldwide. This will also strengthen its position as a valued partner for NGS-based testing across a broad range of clinical applications. Through Biomnis, a provider of medical laboratory testing services, NIPT will now be available in France. Biomnis believes, with the access of Illumina's whole genome sequencing, it will be able to deliver its tests with the highest level of accuracy. On the other hand, molecular genetics laboratory Genoma and Munich-based Center for Human Genetics and Laboratory Diagnostics Martinsrieduse will offer NIPT in Italy and Germany respectively. Genoma expects that access to NIPT through its network with the use of Illumina's technology … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise John Maunsell, PhD, a pioneering researcher in the neuroscience of vision and editor-in-chief of the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience, has been appointed inaugural director of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior at the University of Chicago. He assumes full-time responsibilities July 1. Founded in part through a gift from University of Chicago Trustee Sanford Grossman, Chairman of QFS Asset Management, LP, the Grossman Institute represents an ambitious, cross-disciplinary approach toward understanding the brain and human behavior. The Institute seeks to foster collaborations and facilitate novel exchanges of ideas between scientists from across the University of Chicagos diverse research strengthsincluding programs in human genetics and evolution, biological and social neuroscience, psychology and sociology, mathematics and economics. It will harness the close integration of research, education and patient care at the Universitys nationally ranked academic medical center and its partnerships with affiliated National Laboratories and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. With Johns vision, leadership and rigorous training as a quantitative neuroscientist and the Universitys longstanding expertise in fields such as evolutionary genomics, quantitative biology and economics, I am confident that the Grossman Institute will meet the challenge … Continue reading →