NEW YORK – Pacific Biosciences said Wednesday that it is collaborating with five healthcare centers in Asia on fertility research.
The Menlo Park, California-based sequencing technology firm along with Singapore's KK Women's and Children's Hospital has formed the HiFi Solves Sub-fertility Consortium. Other members of the consortium include researchers from Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, Taiwan's Changhua Christian Hospital Medical Center, and South Korea's Seoul National University College of Medicine and CHA University School of Medicine.
The consortium plans to use PacBio's HiFi long-read sequencing to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of subfertility and recurrent miscarriages. Financial and other details were not disclosed.
In a statement, PacBio CEO Christian Henry said that the consortium would make use of a federated data platform from Canadian bioinformatics firm DNAstack. "The formation of the HiFi Solves Sub-fertility Consortium is a significant step forward in fertility research," he said. "We are poised to make substantial advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of subfertility and recurrent pregnancy loss."
In 2023, PacBio launched the HiFi Solves consortium with 15 research institutions worldwide to develop and share best practices for use of its Revio sequencer for clinical research applications.