World-leading genomic research
Cambridge-based Congenica develops the world’s leading automated clinical decision support platform for research use. It is used today by global healthcare organisations, centres of excellence, diagnostic laboratories and biopharmaceutical companies. Congenica also provides an exclusive analysis of rare genetic diseases for the UK Genomic Medicine Service - the first national healthcare system to offer whole genome sequencing as part of routine care. This platform allows researchers to shorten the analysis and interpretation of genetic diseases to as little as 5-minutes, which in the past would take on average over 20-hours. Thus, the platform is helping more people to receive life-changing answers faster.
TeleSoftas is a company operating in Lithuania that provides smart and innovative IT solutions, which has been contributing to the improvement of this platform since June. A team of Lithuanian specialists is helping the UK-based company to further develop new features for the platform based on automation and artificial intelligence functionalities that will allow researchers to automate many of the manual processes involved in genomic data analysis.
“On average, people with genetic diseases wait five years for a diagnosis. The solution we have developed will help researchers find ways to reduce this diagnostic odyssey to just a few days, by allowing for faster delivery of actionable genomic information to a larger number of people. Therefore, we truly value this new partnership and believe that this group of highly skilled professionals will help us create an even more innovative platform,” said Rob Denison, CIO at Congenica.
New jobs in Lithuania
The smart IT services company is working to help improve the platform, in areas including IT project management, Python, JavaScript and QA Automation. In order to ensure the overall success of the project and to increase the scope of its competencies, the Lithuanian company has been working with the IT company 505 HQ. Congenica was introduced to Lithuania, it's the business environment and the country’s range of talent by Invest Lithuania, which is an organisation responsible for attracting foreign capital.
“This partnership gives us an opportunity to use our existing IT knowledge to create a solution that contributes to the treatment of diseases around the world. Currently, 9 of our experts are working on the project, but by the end of the year, we plan to expand the team to include 18 specialists from various IT fields. We will focus on developing new functions for the Congenica rare diseases support platform and improving the backend solutions,” said Gabrielė Navagrudskaitė, TeleSoftas Account Manager.
Enabling genomic medicine
Genomics is a branch of biological science that focuses on genetically encoded information and allowing this knowledge to be put into practice.
The automation and artificial intelligence functionalities available on the Congenica platform provide users with the possibility to achieve results in minutes, by obtaining and systematising information which previously took several days. This drastically reduces both the time and cost of information processing, while increasing productivity by 95 per cent.
Unlike other software, Congenica allows for a consistent secondary and tertiary analysis of the entire genome and gene group data, as well as the calculation of coverage statistics for all genes, which allows for greater confidence in the resulting data. By analysing the entire human genome, it becomes possible not only to find the problem but also to look at it more broadly, by gathering billions of pieces of data that assist in understanding every important detail within the human genome. Congenica is working towards a future where genomics is fully integrated into healthcare, when personalised decisions and treatments, guided by genomic information, are routinely used to transform the health and wellness of individuals around the world.
