NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Centogene and Interactive Biosoftware (IBS) announced today that they have signed an agreement to join their respective technologies in order to provide the medical community with genetic variant interpretation data.
Centogene's CentoMD proprietary database contains approximately 3 million identified alleles, disease-associated polymorphisms, benign polymorphisms and other known variants of undetermined significance. It encompasses genetic information and clinical data from more than 100,000 people around the world, according to the company. The companies plan to integrate CentoMD with IBS' Alamut Visual decision support software, which uses genomic data and prediction algorithms to describe variants and interpret their pathogenic status.
IBS CEO André Blavier noted in a statement that the partners want to provide clinicians with "the most relevant and extensive data sets to help them in the complex task of interpreting genomic variations." The combination of the two companies' technologies should help rare disease researchers to better assess the importance and effect of genetic variants, particularly in underrepresented populations, he added.
Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"The fast-grown era of mass data produced by whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing demands unprecedented access to all available information within the shortest time," Centogene CEO Arndt Rolfs said in the statement. "The collaboration with IBS will clearly reduce the time for diagnostic workflows needed for making sound decisions of clinical relevance."