QFAB, Garvan team for genome sequence analysis

Brisbane’s QFAB Bioinformatics and Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research have formed a partnership covering whole human genome sequence data analysis.

The agreement covers the provision of analysis of human genome sequence information to scientists and medicos.

The Garvan Institute is deploying Illumina’s large-scale genome sequencing platform HiSeq X Ten. This platform is capable of sequencing more than 300 human genomes a week at a base cost of US$1000 ($1072) per genome.

Garvan plans to offer sequencing capabilities to researchers throughout Australia and APAC, and will use its partnership with QFAB Bioinformatics to offer the service to researchers who do not have their own bioinformatics capability.

“Our approach to furthering the use of genomic information extends to integration with bespoke bioinformatics analysis as we and our service partner QFAB Bioinformatics look to streamline the overall process of whole human genome sequencing and data management,” said A/Prof Marcel Dinger, Head of Clinical Genomics and Genome Informatics at the Garvan Institute.

According to the companies, the sequencing capabilities will be aimed at researchers in need of advanced analytics and data mining for their translational medicine needs, and for clinicians who are new to sequencing technologies.

QFAB is operated in a collaboration with the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University. It is located at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Biosciences.