NEW YORK – LifeStrands Genomics and Ambry Genetics will provide testing services for three precision medicine clinical implementation pilot studies in Singapore, the companies said Wednesday.
The office implementing Singapore's National Precision Medicine (NPM) program, known as Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE), selected LifeStrands and Ambry to provide clinical genetic testing services for pilots in Phase II of the program.
Under the agreement, Singaporean laboratory LifeStrands will offer study participants with familial hypercholesterolemia, familial and hereditary cancers, and primary glomerular diseases genetic tests from Aliso Viejo, California-based Ambry and will sequence samples in its accredited laboratory. Ambry will provide data interpretation and reporting services.
"Clinicians in the Singapore public hospitals are evaluating the use of genetic tests to improve the health of Singaporeans in a number of different areas as part of the National Precision Medicine Program," said Tai Shyong, chief medical officer at PRECISE, in a statement. "This program cannot succeed without the ability to carry out high-quality genetic testing and appropriately interpreting these tests. We are delighted that LifeStrands Genomics has partnered with Ambry Genetics to offer these tests in Singapore."
Singapore's 10-year precision medicine program kicked off in 2017, with a goal of better understanding how genomic, lifestyle, and clinical factors contribute to the health of Singaporeans and to improve patient outcomes through building genomic insights from patients of Asian ancestries, according to a paper published in Nature Genetics in January.
Phase I, which ran from 2017 to 2021, involved generating whole-genome sequencing data for about 10,000 Singaporeans; Phase II, which is expected to wrap up next year, will sequence the genomes of 100,000 Singaporeans and launch several pilots, according to the paper. Phase III is expected to expand the program to 1 million Singaporeans in 2024.