Singapore’s National Precision Medicine programme partners with PacBio to propel HiFi sequencing in Southeast Asia

PacBio, a leading developer of high-quality, highly accurate sequencing solutions, has announced that Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) has chosen the Revio HiFi sequencing system for its Long-Read Sequencing Flagship Project. This initiative aims to generate the largest long-read sequencing dataset in Southeast Asia, marking a significant advancement for precision medicine in Singapore.

As part of Singapore’s three-phase National Precision Medicine (NPM) programme, the current phase of the NPM aims to transform healthcare in Singapore and improve patient outcomes through new insights into the Asian genome. Hence, this collaboration will harness PacBio’s state-of-the-art HiFi sequencing technology to offer profound insights into genetic diversity, disease mechanisms, and clinical diagnoses within Singapore’s multi-ethnic population.

This partnership highlights the role of PacBio’s HiFi sequencing technology in advancing precision medicine. Beyond the capabilities of traditional short-read sequencing technologies, PacBio’s long-read sequencing provides comprehensive genomic coverage, enabling the detection of large structural variations and DNA methylation, providing a more complete picture of the genome.

This multi-omics approach, combining whole genome sequencing (WGS), RNA full-length sequencing, fibre sequencing, and methylation analysis, positions PacBio as an essential contributor to the success of this joint effort with PRECISE.

PacBio’s joint effort with PRECISE is set to elevate precision medicine in Singapore, leveraging highly-accurate long-read sequencing to drive scientific breakthroughs and enhance clinical outcomes. Through significant product contributions, investment in local expertise, and a comprehensive data platform, PacBio is dedicated to the success of this transformative initiative.

Key highlights of the partnership:

Comprehensive long-read genomic data

PacBio will generate high-quality phased methylome and genomic information for a multi-thousand-sample whole genomes sequencing project, including:

• 60x HiFi depth for Pan-Asian reference genomes.
• 20x HiFi depth for multi-omics analysis.
• 30x HiFi depth for unresolved and research cases in cancer and rare diseases.

Advanced sequencing infrastructure

PacBio will establish advanced sequencing and data analysis pipelines in Singapore, including a centralised library preparation facility and sequencing laboratory for high throughput production.

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