Relationship Aims to Advance Development of Innovative Tools for Visualizing and Analyzing Gene Expression within Tissue Samples
April 4, 2017
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 4, 2017 –Seven Bridges, the biomedical data analysis company, today announced an investment in Spatial Transcriptomics, a life sciences start-up developing innovative technology to analyze tissue samples and gene expression data in two dimensions. As a first step in building a strategic partnership, Seven Bridges’ investment is aimed at advancing the development of Spatial Transcriptomics’ rich set of tools for visualizing gene expression within tissue samples and also making those tools available on the Seven Bridges Platform for biomedical analysis, which is used by thousands of researchers working on large-scale genomics projects worldwide.
Spatial Transcriptomics’ technology opens up a wealth of new insight for researchers working to better understand how gene activity impacts human health at the cellular level. The company’s innovative spatial approach allows detailed mapping of gene activity within thin sections of various tissues, from humans, animals, and plants. Using this approach, researchers are able to investigate gene expression dynamics, and the implications of those dynamics on human health, more quickly and at a fraction of the cost of other methods like single-cell sequencing.
“Spatial Transcriptomics’ technology enables scientists to ask questions about gene expression dynamics that were never before possible, with broad applications for large research projects like the Human Cell Atlas, as well as for teams working to develop treatments for genetically driven diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer,” said Brandi Davis-Dusenbery, Ph.D., CEO of Seven Bridges. “Our relationship with Spatial Transcriptomics will help their technology reach more scientists via the Seven Bridges Platform, which aligns with our goal to make leading-edge bioinformatics tools more accessible and useful to researchers around the globe.”
“The Seven Bridges Platform makes it much easier for researchers to access, analyze and share massive biomedical data sets, providing an ideal collaborative environment for all types of genomic research projects,” said Florian Baumgartner, CEO of Spatial Transcriptomics. “This investment will not only help us continue to refine and develop the Spatial Transcriptomics tool set, but also allow us to make our technology available to more researchers, so that they can layer intuitive visual analysis on top of other approaches they are using to investigate genetic data.”
By making Spatial Transcriptomics technology available on its platform later this year, Seven Bridges will give users the ability to analyze their own gene expression data in conjunction with other large data sets, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia. More information about Spatial Transcriptomics’ technology can be found on the company’s web site and in a paper published in Science.
About Seven Bridges
Seven Bridges is the biomedical data analysis company accelerating breakthroughs in genomics research for cancer, drug development and precision medicine. The scalable, cloud-based Seven Bridges Platform empowers rapid, collaborative analysis of millions of genomes in concert with other forms of biomedical data. Thousands of researchers in government, biotech, pharmaceutical and academic labs use Seven Bridges, including three of the largest genomics projects in the world: U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Genomics Cloud pilot, the Million Veteran Program, and Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. As the NIH’s only commercial Trusted Partner, Seven Bridges authenticates and authorizes access to one of the world’s largest cancer genomics dataset. Named one of the world’s smartest companies by MIT Technology Review, Seven Bridges has offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Belgrade; London; Istanbul; Ankara; and San Francisco.
About Spatial Transcriptomics
The Spatial Transcriptomics technology was originally developed at Science for Life Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden as a joint project between two of Sweden’s leading universities, Karolinska Institutet and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Spatial Transcriptomics is a method that allows visualization and quantitative analysis of the transcriptome in individual tissue sections. By placing histological sections on glass slides with arrayed oligonucleotides containing positional barcodes, it is possible to generate high quality cDNA libraries with precise positional information for RNA-seq. This provides transcriptome data in a versatile format for bioinformatics analyses of gene expression within the tissue context, which will be valuable in both research and diagnostics. The method has received increasing attention and is currently the basis of several national and international collaborations. The company is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Several of the largest pharmaceutical companies as well as leading universities are among the customers that have adopted the technology. The company aims to spread the technology and exploit the data that is generated.
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