DNA Sequencing: Innovative Tool to Improve Understanding of Chronic Diseases With Limitless Opportunities

DNA sequencing is a norm now. It has become as casual as taking a blood test. However, scientists are not done looking for new ways to put the technology to work. The last two decades have seen a revolution in DNA sequencing with boosted speed and efficiency along with a massive reduction in cost. Thanks to the increase in genome mapping programs and adoption of personalized medicine trends, the demand for DNA sequencing has skyrocketed. According to Allied Market Research, the DNA sequencing market is projected to reach $25.47 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 19.0% from 2018 to 2025.

A genome is regarded as a body’s instruction manual, which is made of DNA and there is a copy in almost every cell. DNA sequencing gathered attention when researchers discovered that it can be used to understand how cancer cells work. Through DNA sequencing, clinicians can understand how cancer cells evolve and what treatments would be most effective. Additionally, if coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), genomics could unlock new doors in healthcare and even determine a healthy person’s future risks of developing any chronic disease.

Cervical cancer is responsible for more than 7% of the cancer deaths in women across the world, but scientists still know very little about how mutation form in the tumor, which limits the potential to develop an effective drug against it. However, DNA sequencing could be the key to treat cervical cancer. Scientists compared the genomes of cervical tumors and healthy tissue taken from the same patient and discovered 13 mutations linked to cervical cancer. Out of them, eight were not associated with the disease and two were not known linked to cancer at all. According to researchers, it was the most significant finding as one of those genes were previously identified to be linked with breast cancer. This concludes that cervical cancer patients could be treated with existing therapies for breast cancer. Such advancements in healthcare have offered a new way to find treatments for cancer patients.

With the advent of DNA sequencing, the humongous amount of genetic data is piling up. However, not much of it gets interpreted. To solve this, HashedIn, a leading software as a solution (SaaS) company and Basepair have announced collaboration to develop a SaaS solution to deal with DNA sequencing data for personalized and predictive healthcare. HashedIn uses ANT design that helps scientists and clinicians from Harvard Medical School, University of California San Diego, and New York University to use Basepair to discover more about chronic diseases such as AIDS and cancer.

Basepair has developed a SaaS solution to analyze, manage, and interpret DNA sequencing data. Moreover, Basepair and HashedIn have offered ANT design to aid healthcare professionals to focus on scalable data analytics solutions. This would offer them a platform to expedite analysis workflows without investing money in computing resources and skilled personnel. As DNA sequencing has the potential to revolutionize medicine, agriculture, and research, leading institutes use Basepair to analyze huge DNA sequencing data and discover patterns to treat critical illness. This new SaaS solution offers users unprecedented visibility into their data. DNA sequencing is the beginning to yield insights for several diseases and more data would flood in over the next several years. Such collaboration to develop novel platforms could be regarded as the beginning of the bright future in healthcare to find answers for treating cancer and other critical illnesses.

 

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