GENEVA & SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Unilabs, a leading diagnostics company in Europe, and Natera, a leading innovator in prenatal genetic testing, announced today that Unilabs will distribute Nateras non-invasive prenatal screening test, Panorama, across its wide network in Switzerland and Scandinavia. Panorama was launched in March 2013 for the detection of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and select sex chromosome abnormalities, such as monosomy X (Turners syndrome). Panorama marks a significant advance in the field of prenatal testing as it has shown remarkable sensitivity and specificity across multiple aneuploidies, said Thomas Brinkmann, M.D., group chief medical officer of Unilabs. By providing physicians and expectant mothers with accurate information in a non-invasive test, Panorama contributes to our goal of ensuring that expectant mothers receive accurate information to guide their doctors clinical decisions. Unilabs provides a comprehensive portfolio of diagnostic services in 11 countries in Europe. It has diagnostic contracts with companies specializing in areas such as laboratory medicine, medical imaging, reproductive medicine and drug development services. We are excited to work with a world-class partner in the distribution of Panorama to Switzerland and other parts of Europe, said Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D., chief executive … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Good Start Genetics, Inc.,an innovative molecular diagnostics company delivering best-in-class tests for routine genetic screening, announced that the journal Genetics in Medicine published a study online today validating the companys powerful, proprietary next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) approach. The study, titled Next-Generation Carrier Screening, demonstrates that Good Start Genetics DNA sequencing-based technology surpasses other methods by yielding more accurate, sensitive and complete carrier screening results. The companys NGS-based tests are currently available to reproductive health providers across the United States as GoodStart Select. This is one of the best examples yet that personal genome knowledge offers great value to everyone alive, not just a few. Your genome contains highly predictive and medically actionable insights. This is also a terrific validation of recent technological efforts to improve cost and quality of sequencing, and allows us to learn much more about ourselves, said genomics expert and study co-author George Church, Ph.D., professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. Genetic carrier screening is routinely performed to better understand the risk of a couple having a child with a known inherited disease. In this study, Good Start Genetics utilized its NGS technology to sequence and analyze the protein-coding regions of 15 genes … Continue reading →

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Supreme Courts decision today to invalidate patents on human genes changes the landscape of Personalized Medicine, making it possible for more patients to benefit from genetic testing while substantially lowering the cost of that testing. PGXLs mission is to advance Personalized Medicine for the improvement of peoples lives, says Dr. Roland Valdes, Jr., President of PGXL Laboratories. This opens the door for PGXL Laboratories and others to provide a greater diversity of tests in the very near future. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that were the subject of this case indicate a predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. It was a BRCA1 test that convinced Angelina Jolie to undergo pre-emptive mastectomy. The tests have been expensive, costing as much as $3,000. Putting BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the public domain will lower that cost by increasing availability and competition. In addition, unencumbered access to the genes will enable laboratories to innovate new and more cost-effective ways to analyze and interpret the gene. The case is Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, 12-398 ABOUT PGXL PGXL Laboratories is a pioneer in the application of genetic testing to personalized medicine. It was the first lab CLIA-certified specifically to … Continue reading →

HOUSTON, June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Thanks to today's U.S. Supreme Court decision opening the door to greater access to genetic medicine by American patients and their health care providers, testing for genes specifically linked to breast, ovarian and other cancers will now be more widely available and at a lower cost than ever before. DNATraits, a division of Houston-based genomics and genetics testing company Gene By Gene, Ltd., announced today that it will offer testing for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in the United States for $995. Prior to today's unanimous Supreme Court ruling, when exorbitant licensing fees kept DNATraits and others from offering BRCA gene tests in the United States, the cost for such tests was around $4,000. "We're pleased to make this important testing more widely available and accessible in the United States," said Gene By Gene President Bennett Greenspan. "Our highly automated CLIA-registered lab and efficient processes enable us to make genetic and genomic testing more affordable and accessible to more individuals, in the U.S. and worldwide. And that's our company's mission, in a nutshell." The company's announcement about the tests, which gained national attention when actress Angelina Jolie courageously revealed in May that being a BRCA1 … Continue reading →

Public release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Joe Dangor newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Newly discovered genetic variations may help predict breast cancer risk in women who receive preventive breast cancer therapy with the selective estrogen receptor modulator drugs tamoxifen and raloxifene, a Mayo Clinic-led study has found. The study is published in the journal Cancer Discovery. "Our findings are important because we identified genetic factors that could eventually be used to select women who should be offered the drugs for prevention," said James Ingle, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ingle and collaborators at the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) and the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine conducted a genome-wide association study involving 592 patients who developed breast cancer while receiving preventive therapy and 1,171 matched controls. Participants were selected from 33,000 women enrolled in the NSABP breast cancer prevention trials. This research was supported by a Pharmacogenomics Research Network grant from the National Institute of General Medical Science and the National Cancer Institute. The researchers analyzed participants' DNA to identify variations in their genetic makeup and identified two genetic variations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), that were associated … Continue reading →

13th June 2013 George Freeman has tabled an adjournment debate on Genetic medicine and patients' rights. 10 years ago the UK was home to one of the great breakthroughs in the story of mankind. The first human genome was sequenced at the Sanger Centre a mile to the South of Cambridge. The code of life the sequence of DNA embedded in the nucleus of every human cell which codes for the proteins which assemble and control every function of the human body, was mapped for the first time. It took 100,000,000 and over ten years of focused scientific effort. Today the explosive breakthroughs in genetics and computing make it possible to achieve the same with 1000 in 24 hours. Now clinics are appearing around the world offering personalized cancer therapy with drugs tailored to your specific disease and condition. When Angelina Jolie bravely announced that she had a double mastectomy last month, she revealed that it was these breakthroughs in genetic science that not only identified that she was at high risk of having breast cancer, but empowered her to make this very personal decision. We need to ensure that these medical breakthroughs are available to all patients. The Government … Continue reading →