By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report
Human Longevity, Inc., a California-based genomic laboratory, has entered into an agreement with Personal Genomic Diagnostics, Inc. to license the latter’s products to expand its ability to analyze cancer genomes.
The deal includes the use of Personal Genome’s CancerSelect, PlasmaSelect, CancerXome, METDetect and CancerComplete products. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Along with the licensing of those products, Human Longevity has also licensed Personal Genomics’ next-generation sequencing platform. As part of the agreement, Human Longevity will perform sequencing and analysis for some of Personal Genome’s clients.
Human Longevity enters into pacts with academic medical centers and large biotechnologycompanies to sequence and analyze human genomes in order to better determine specifics about individual tumors and tailor more specific treatments.
“(Human Longevity’s) commitment to changing the way medicine is practiced by systematically harnessing genomics data to address aging-associated diseases aligns well with our goal of transforming the treatment of cancer by enabling researchers, physicians and patients to use genomics data to advance and personalize cancer therapy,” said Victor Velculescu, M.D., Personal Genomics’ chief scientific officer.
In addition to the Personal Genomics deal, Human Longevity also inked a pact with Genentech to conduct whole genome sequencing of tens of thousands of the company’s de-identified tissue samples.
Human Longevity was formed in 2013 by a group of scientists and entrepreneurs, including Chief Executive Officer J. Craig Venter, the founder of the Institute for Genomic Research and Celera, Inc. Venter was among the first scientists to fully sequence the human genome in the late 1990s.