NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Illumina and Kindstar Global, a Chinese diagnostic testing service provider, have signed a strategic collaboration to introduce molecular assays based on Illumina products in Kindstar's laboratories, the companies said today.
The partnership involves Illumina's TruSight content sets for targeted next-generation sequencing, Infinium Dx CytoSNP-12 BeadChip assay, and NuPCR reagents for qPCR.
Commenting on the TruSight sets, Matt Posard, senior vice president and general manager of Illumina's translational and consumer genomics business, said in a statement, "Next-generation sequencing is enabling a dramatic improvement in both coverage and accuracy for molecular diagnostics, and we look forward to additional partnerships that continue to drive this improvement forward."
Illumina launched its first TruSight content sets last September for autism, cancer, cardiomyopathy, inherited disease, and the exome. Earlier this month, it added another one for solid tumors. All TruSight sets are for research use only and are not intended for diagnostic use, according to Illumina's website.
Kindstar provides esoteric diagnostic testing services to hospitals and physicians in all Chinese provinces, including more than 3,300 hospitals, among them 930 large leading hospitals, so-called tertiary hospitals. It has laboratories in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan.
Kindstar's diagnostic tests comprise many medical specialties, such as hematology, oncology, infectious diseases, and medical genetics.