For now, Direct Genomics has set its sights on China. The company is taking advantage of patents licensed from Caltech, using a sequencing method first brought to market by Helicos Biosciences of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Helicos was founded in 2004 by Stephen Quake, who came up with the idea of single-molecule sequencing, though Helicos eventually went bankrupt in 2012. A postdoc in Quake's laboratory, He Jiankui, now Direct Genomics CEO and a biophysicist and genomics researcher at South University of Science and Technology of China, returned to China and set up his company to build a sequencer geared towards diagnostics. Quake now leads the scientific advisory board for this new company.
Direct Genomics' instrument is meant only for the clinical market. The GenoCare analyzer enables 'direct' reading of raw, unmodified DNA in single molecules. Whereas conventional sequencers require amplification of DNA with PCR and several other steps, the GenoCare analyzer is an amplification-free technology. It intensely focuses light on DNA molecules and prevents illumination of contaminants to allow detection of the tiny signal from a single strand of DNA. Though it cannot match Illumina or Thermo Fisher sequencing platforms on volume in whole-genome sequencing, the technology promises fast and cheap sequencing of critical areas of patient genomes so that doctors can tune in on particular mutations and tailor treatment to patients.
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