NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Hitachi High Technologies and OpGen this week launched an early access program to test the Human Chromosome Explorer, a human chromosome mapping analytical service for clinical and life science research.
The service combines OpGen's whole genome mapping technology with bioinformatics and data management tools in Hitachi's cloud environment. Hitatchi is accepting applications involving human structural variation projects for the EAP through the end of this year. The firm plans to launch the service, which will include capabilities for detecting and analyzing chromosomal aberrations, early next year.
The service will provide customers with high-resolution, high-fidelity whole genome maps produced for human samples, complete with automated, comprehensive reports of structural variations across the human genome. Customers will also be able to store, analyze, and manage their variant data as well as share information and collaborate with other researchers in the cloud. They'll also gain insights into the order, orientation, length, and location of biologically and clinically significant components of complex genomes, which may include DNA copy number variations, indels, inversions, and translocations.
It will be "a highly complementary technology for whole genome analysis with next-generation sequencing technologies, for the analysis of long-range genetic events," Yoshito Nejime, deputy general manager for the new business development division of Hitachi High-Technologies, said in a statement.
"We are very enthusiastic about our ongoing partnership with Hitachi High-Technologies and the deepening relationship between our two companies," Evan Jones, OpGen chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "The joint development of the new human chromosome mapping and structural variation analytical platform is a great example of a solutions approach to human genome informatics that will ultimately advance translational research and the study of numerous human genetic diseases."
Michael Talkowski, an assistant professor of neurology, psychiatry, and pathology, and director of the genomics and technology core at Massachusetts General Hospital, noted that he and colleagues are exploring "human chromosome mapping technology and its potential to resolve variation in complex genomic regions that are not accessible to short-read sequencing."
"We are pleased to be collaborating with the Hitachi High-Technologies and OpGen teams to explore the capabilities of their technology to complement massively parallel sequencing approaches to the detection of complex structural variations in humans," he said in a statement.