2015 was a milestone year for genomic medicine. Spurred by new CPT reimbursement codes in the US and massive government sponsored sequencing initiatives across the globe such as President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, the multi-billion dollar genome-guided, precision medicine industry took a giant leap forward this past year.
Here at Tute Genomics we are thrilled to be at the heart of this genomic revolution. We envision a world where every child and every patient who requires a genetic diagnosis receives one, in time for it to make a difference. To ensure this happens, it’s our mission to deliver best-in-class informatics technology that puts genomic knowledge in the hands of the millions of clinicians and laboratory personnel who diagnose and treat patients every day. We’re making tremendous progress!
As the year closes out, we look back at some of Tute Genomics’ own milestones in how we’re continuing to make this mission a reality.
No Child Left Undiagnosed campaign marks official entry into pediatrics
Genomic medicine is a rapidly expanding and ever evolving industry of test developers, drug manufacturers and healthcare providers all operating loosely within an ecosystem aimed at diagnosing disease more quickly and accurately and delivering more effective treatments.
We have chosen as a company to focus our initial efforts within this ecosystem on pediatrics, a vertical that has been core to our business, but made official in April with the launch of our No Child Left Undiagnosed campaign. Tute co-founders, Kai Wang PhD and Reid Robison, MD MBA, have built their scientific and healthcare careers on tackling this meaningful challenge, and have published together on a number of pediatric genetics discoveries. In fact, one of Dr. Wang’s studies on the genetics of autism, featured in the journal Nature, was named one of Time magazine’s Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2009.
Join us in our bold new initiative: “No Child Left Undiagnosed” http://t.co/YRDZ0opAE5 pic.twitter.com/BqNsnmMT12
— Tute Genomics (@TuteGenomics) May 30, 2015
Why pediatrics? Simple. It’s the area where genomic technology can have the biggest and most lasting impact on a human being’s life, as well as the healthcare savings associated with earlier diagnosis. If we want to revolutionize healthcare, or more specifically the care of one’s health, it starts at birth or perhaps even sooner. The word Tute means personal, and we’ve assembled a stellar team of bright and experienced individuals, driven by passion and purpose, to make healthcare more personalized.
Think about the number of lives that could be saved or significantly impacted. It’s estimated that 1 in 10 people have a rare disease, 80% of which are genetic in nature. 50% of those affected are children. That’s roughly 16 million kids with a rare genetic disease in the US alone plus an additional 160,000 born annually. Sadly, 30% of these children don’t live to the age of 5.
Further, consider Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) where over 200,000 newborns in the US find themselves each year at an average cost of $75,000 per individual over a typical 13 week stay, easily the most expensive bed in any hospital. 30% of NICU babies, or 60,000 annually, are suspected to have a genetic disease. Dr. Stephen Kingsmore and others have shown that genomic sequencing saves lives in the NICU when results are returned rapidly.
“Rapid turnaround next-generation sequencing can save time, save lives, save suffering.” -@reidrobison #RDD2015 pic.twitter.com/Kzi3gAXQnw — Tute Genomics (@TuteGenomics) February 28, 2015
Through our partners at Aware of Angels, Rare and Undiagnosed Network, and Affiliated Genetics here in Utah, we had the privilege of actively participating in the diagnoses of kids with a rare genetic disease, as was highlighted by the story of Leah in our first Grand Rounds webinar in June and later at the annual American Society of Human Genetics conference.
.@reidrobison raising awareness for rare and undiagnosed diseases in front of packed house at #ASHG15 pic.twitter.com/pYPnztole3 — Tute Genomics (@TuteGenomics) October 8, 2015
We have also been blessed to meet countless other children and their families at events such as Rare Disease Day, Global Genes Summit, Walk with Angels, and more.
Thanks @UnitedAngelsOrg for the amazing event! What a great turn out! Congrats for exceeding your fundraising goal! pic.twitter.com/QbGwiPplgn — Tute Genomics (@TuteGenomics) June 1, 2015
It’s an honor to know that one day tens of thousands, or even millions of these amazing kids will be influenced by the technology we deliver.
Commercial expansion of the Tute Platform makes genomics accessible to thousands of users worldwide
From early adopter medical centers and diagnostic laboratories to more mainstream healthcare organizations worldwide, our Tute Genomics Platform saw a significant spike in access from over 700 users in 2014 to 1,300 users in 2015. We now include among our enterprise clients several top 10 children’s hospitals in North America, as well major diagnostic companies, pharmaceutical companies and genomic service providers that collectively sequence tens of thousands of gene panels, exomes, and genomes every month.
Expansion into global markets has also been promising. In 2015 we signed new distribution agreements with Cloud Scientific out of Shanghai, as well as Genatak, a leading center for genomic medicine in the Middle East.
Always fun to see our stuff translated in a different language! http://t.co/S92FW5UI0M pic.twitter.com/0PAUx34uUr — Tute Genomics (@TuteGenomics) August 27, 2015
Healthcare, tech giants rally behind the cause, provide resources for growth
What an exciting year it’s been in terms of strategic investments by and partnerships with some of the biggest names in tech and healthcare, all who share our vision of genome-guided, precision medicine. In June we were thrilled to announce the closing of our Series A1 funding led by Eurovestech with investments from Intermountain Healthcare, Healthbox, Peak Ventures and Tencent. This news was preceded by the disclosure that Tute Genomics became the first StartUp Health company.
What is the future of personalized medicine & how will it change lives? @reidrobison of @tutegenomics has the scoop http://t.co/9dEsyMKLsZ
— StartUp Health (@startuphealth) April 28, 2015
We also made several impactful partnership announcements in 2015, the first with Google Genomics whose platform is used to make our database of 8.5 billion annotations of genetic variants available to the public, and Silicon Valley’s DNAnexus with whom we work together to provide sample-in, report-out bioinformatics pipelines. We couldn’t accomplish our mission without the support of such progressive organizations, and for that we’re incredibly thankful.
Knome acquisition accelerates genomic medicine technology roadmap
Undoubtedly the biggest news story for Tute this year was our acquisition of Knome technology assets. Knome is a renowned human-genome interpretation company. Founded in 2007, its systems and services have helped spearhead several of the greatest commercial advancements in modern human genetics. So it’s no wonder the news was received with quite a bit of fanfare.
In a #genomic medicine deal, @TuteGenomics buys @Knome for undisclosed price: https://t.co/WgaoQiIYXP — GEN (@GENbio) November 2, 2015
But the awe moment for us transpired many months before the announcement when our technical team was able to audit the underlying code behind the technology Knome had been building. What we experienced was an incredibly well engineered genomic interpretation system that perfectly aligned with our roadmap to build the most integrated and secure platform for genomic medicine. Our efforts have been dramatically accelerated. A fortunate few have even already seen a preview of what we plan to launch to the public at the American College of Medical Genetics conference in March.
The acquisition of Knome technology is transformative not only for Tute, but also for our growing list of world-leading clients who require the scalable infrastructure needed to accelerate their own roadmaps to incorporate genomic medicine into routine clinical care.
The road ahead
2015 was an incredible year for genomic medicine. But the transformation genomics is making in healthcare has just begun. At Tute, we’re not content with being part of the genomic revolution; we’re here to lead it.
As we look to 2016, we’re confident that with the support of our partners, investors, and clients, what we’re building is helping shape the future of medicine - a technology stack that unites laboratory, doctor and patient on their quest for genome-guided, precision medicine.
We look forward to hearing from you all in the New Year!
