Illumina
ILMN]

Less than a decade ago, the process of sequencing an individual genome or analyzing genetic variation and function were impossible and unimaginable. With the pace of technology along with a clear and advanced understanding of the molecular basis of human physiology and disease, companies are offering new and better ways to improve health and tackle diseases. Illumina [NASDAQ:ILMN], a pioneer in genomic solutions, aims to transform human health and help researchers to achieve revolutionary advancements. The company has developed all-inclusive genomics portfolio of integrated systems, analysis tools, and consumables, which help scientists to get a better understanding of genetic variation at all levels of complexities. With the introduction of array based technologies, it has become a lot easier to examine a patient’s genome that is too small to be detected by standard chromosome studies. Illumina’s innovative solutions like array-based solutions for DNA, RNA, and protein analysis serve as tools for disease research and development of molecular tests and drug development in clinics. Not just in clinics but Illumina’s solutions is applied everywhere, whether it is a cancer research or prenatal screening to food safety.

With exponential expansion of human clinical and molecular data, Illumina is committed to provide powerful genetic data analysis to their customers with the help of their innovative informatics solutions. Illumina’s Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is an innovative platform that delivers topnotch data quality and accuracy at an incomparable scale, transforming the field of genomics. NGS continues to enable advances in cancer genomics, microbiology, and other areas like clinical and forensic genomics researchers. “To figure out cancer, we need to sequence hundreds of thousands of cancer genomes, and this is the way to do it,” says Jay T. Flatley, Chairman and CEO of Illumina.

The NextBio platform provides largest collections of continuously curated genomic knowledge in a secure, HIPAA-compliant, cloud based environment, thus providing an access to growing library of curated genomic data.

To figure out cancer, we need to sequence hundreds of thousands of cancer genomes, and this is the way to do it

NextBio Clinical and NextBio Research on NextBio platform transform genomic data to insights with ease, fidelity, and speed. NextBio Clinical helps biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to integrate data analysis into translational research and clinical trials. In addition to that, NextBio Research applications help early stage researchers in gene function studies, drug and disease mechanisms, and cross-species analysis.

Illumina creates tools to study genetic variation often at high throughputs. In one instance, Spira lab—a research lab that uses post-genomic technologies and computational tools— used Illumina’s HiSeq 2000 system and RNA-Seq to discover molecular biomarkers for the early detection of pulmonary diseases. HiSeq, with its scalability and depth of coverage helped them to identify new biomarkers that can potentially impact patient care. RNA-Seq method offered them with the best technology that allowed them to identify transcript alterations and splicing events that was not detectable on a microarray.

Illumina does rapid delivery of solutions and prioritizes the needs of its customers. But one factor that differentiates Illumina from others is that they enable their customers to read and understand genetic variations by making solutions increasingly simple, more accessible, and reliable. Thus, they are successfully making their way into patient treatment. In future, the company aims to become a large and independent company that will apply innovative technologies to analyze genetic variation and function, in order to make those studies possible that were not even imaginable just a few years ago.