NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Personalis announced today that it has signed a new contract with the US Department of Veterans Affairs to sequence more than 34,000 additional whole human genomes for the VA's Million Veteran Program.
The program was launched in early 2011 to study the link between genes and disease with a voluntary research cohort of more than 450,000 military veterans. It was expanded in February 2016 in partnership with the Precision Medicine Initiative to include active duty enrollees.
Personalis announced in March 2013 that it had received a contract to provide sequencing and data analysis for 1,000 MVP volunteers, and then received another VA contract in October 2014 to provide clinical exome sequencing services using its ACE Clinical Exome Test.
In October 2016, Personalis signed another contract to provide the VA with more than 10,000 whole genomes for the MVP. The new contract calls for 34,000 genomes in addition to those 10,000 already delivered.
The company noted today that since it first began working with the VA, it has heavily invested in technology and infrastructure to expand its sequencing capabilities. In 2017, Personalis ordered 10 Illumina NovaSeq 6000 instruments, and has developed data systems to track large numbers of human genetic samples, process and manage petabytes of genetic data, and maintain auditable data quality at large scale.
"We are proud to continue our relationship with the VA MVP, a relationship we believe leverages great synergy between us," Personalis CEO John West said in a statement. "By pushing the forefront in immuno-oncology, we believe we have developed skills and technologies which help us to support the VA. By entrusting us with such volume, the VA has helped us drive up our scale. We see these projects as a true win-win."
The company declined to disclose the value of its contract with the VA.