Nashville Biosciences (NashBio) LLC and Illumina Inc., today announced two advancements in the scale and depth of the Alliance for Genomic Discovery (AGD or the Alliance). With the addition of Regeneron Genetics Center® (RGC®) as the tenth member, the Alliance can expand the core dataset to more than 312,000 whole genomes.
The Alliance also announced a new initiative: a dataset of 50,000 additional whole genomes with paired proteomic data generated using Illumina® Protein Prep. Glaxo Smith Klein (GSK) is among the first participants in this multiomic expansion.
The AGD dataset is among the largest collections of whole genome sequences available, and it is the world’s largest pairing of whole genome sequences with the depth of clinical data that comes from a leading academic medical center. De-identified, deep phenotypic data from electronic health records (EHR) enable more precise definition of disease cohorts and are enriched for advanced disease.
“AGD has already enabled disease-impacting discoveries in autoimmune disease and obesity, with many more such studies underway, and continued expansion accelerates this progress,” said Rami Mehio, senior vice president and general manager of BioInsight at Illumina. “Integrating high-quality clinical and genomic data with advanced AI will help pharma translate discoveries into meaningful advances for patients.”
RGC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Regeneron, harnesses the vast potential of human genetics to discover important new medicines, validate existing research programs, and optimize clinical trials. With a database of nearly 3 million sequenced exomes and de-identified EHRs, RGC enables meaningful biological discoveries and guides Regeneron’s broader drug discovery and development efforts.
“We are thrilled to join the Alliance alongside so many of our longtime partners, including Vanderbilt with their exceptional biobank and population-scale genetics program — one of the most impressive in the world,” said Aris Baras, MD, senior vice president, head of RGC and co-head of Regeneron Genetic Medicines. “This alliance brings together an extraordinarily large and rich dataset, and we cannot wait to see the discoveries that lie ahead. At Regeneron, we have always believed that human genetics is the most powerful compass we have for finding the right targets and delivering the best innovative medicines; initiatives like this are exactly how we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible for patients.”
Through the Alliance, RGC will add significant scale to the Alliance’s database as well as its already expansive genomic database. One of RGC’s main goals is to uncover large-effect protective genetic factors that can illuminate the next generation of high-confidence drug targets and ultimately deliver transformative new medicines. Regeneron integrates human genetics across its entire enterprise and intends to leverage this data at every stage of drug discovery and development — from target discovery to clinical trial design to patient and market access to emerging predictive health analytics. This collaboration reflects RGC’s ongoing partnerships with Illumina and the broader biopharma community to build large-scale population genomics consortia, a commitment that dates back to landmark initiatives such as the UK Biobank.
Powerful proteomic data can accelerate drug discovery research for pharma
Multiomic data adds new dimensions to drug discovery research, uncovering deeper biological information than genomics alone. GSK is one of the first to participate in the next phase of AGD, which expands the dataset’s molecular depth and adding proteomics to enable entirely new layers of biological insight. The dataset will consist of 50,000 paired whole-genome and proteomic samples, designed to facilitate faster, more efficient target discovery and therapy development.
Adding proteomics to the AGD dataset will aid in understanding molecular mechanisms of disease-associated genetic variation. The diverse genetic ancestry in AGD provides an opportunity to study population-specific genetic variants and their associated proteins. Illumina Protein Prep is already accelerating breakthroughs across cancer, cardiometabolic, and immunologic diseases. Illumina’s recent acquisition of SomaLogic proteomics technologies expands Illumina’s multiomics portfolio, empowering AGD to accelerate drug discovery and improve health care.
“We are thrilled to have GSK on board as we move to the next evolution of AGD,” said Leeland Ekstrom, PhD, chief executive officer of NashBio. “There is proven value in the integration of proteomics and comprehensive datasets, evidenced by the boon of large-scale studies showing promise in pinpointing drug targets linked to human disease.”
In conjunction with Illumina’s recently announced Billion Cell Atlas, this expanded effort continues the momentum of pharma leveraging combinations of large-scale datasets to identify and understand genetic targets, leading to new insights into disease mechanisms.
