NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – IDbyDNA announced today its partnership with ARUP Laboratories to develop and commercialize next-generation-sequencing (NGS) infectious disease testing using metagenomics, aiming to yield results that are more comprehensive, sensitive, and accurate than current tests.
Conventional testing procedures are normally restricted to requesting specific pathogens and can return a high percentage of negative results, leaving clinicians without crucial information required to efficiently diagnose and treat their patients.
Using IDbyDNA clinical metagenomics software, ARUP's tests aim to deliver more comprehensive results with higher diagnostic yields and better accuracy compared to current tests. ARUP will offer the first test for pneumonia through its established clinical network in the coming weeks.
"[The partnership] is a perfect combination of ARUP's scientific and clinical laboratory expertise and IDbyDNA's expertise in metagenomics and data science" ARUP CEO Edgar Braendle said in a statement. "We are combining laboratory medicine with state-of-the-art genomics and computer science to bring precision medicine to infectious diseases."
IDbyDNA's metagenomics software is powered by Taxonomer, a DNA analysis tool that rapidly detects microorganisms in clinical samples by their genetic material.
Using this approach to test for infectious disease, physicians can perform hypothesis-free diagnoses, meaning they will no longer have to guess the involvement of specific pathogens before ordering tests.
During development, IDbyDNA gained access to ARUP's high-complexity diagnostic testing experience and thousands of ARUP pathogenic validation samples.
"With ARUP's 3,000-plus clients across the US, we can rapidly bring state-of-the-art NGS metagenomic tests to more patients and can deliver clinicians significantly higher diagnostic yields and more actionable results than ever before" IDbyDNA CEO Guochun Liao said in a statement.