Twist Bioscience Corporation, a company offering synthetic DNA via its silicon platform, and Centogene N.V., a life science partner for data-driven answers in rare and neurodegenerative diseases, launched three next-generation sequencing (NGS) target enrichment panels to support rare disease and hereditary cancer research and support diagnostics. 

Target enrichment panels enable more in-depth sequencing on target genes, reducing the need for comprehensive sequencing. This allows for more sensitive detection of target genetic sequences and provides higher confidence that variants will be detected, further driving the understanding of diseases and supporting healthcare professionals in providing precision medicine. 

Labs and research institutions can purchase these ready-made panels to help accelerate their research, and also have the option of using CENTOGENE’s CentoCloud for the identification, prioritization, and classification of human genetic variants to expedite diagnostic analysis.

“There are over 7,000 rare diseases impacting over 350 million patients, many of whom are not diagnosed until the late stages of the disease. Our mission is to provide data-driven, life-changing answers as early as possible to ultimately accelerate the development of treatments,” says Kim Stratton, CEO at CENTOGENE. “By partnering with Twist to develop these custom panels, we are enabling access to diagnostics and generating novel insights for the medical community, fueled by multidimensional data from the CENTOGENE Biodatabank.” 

All three new Alliance Panels are curated using the CENTOGENE Biodatabank, with nearly 700,000 patients represented from over 120 highly diverse countries, over 70% of whom are of non-European descent. Identified sequences are then synthesized by Twist as biotinylated capture probes which are compatible with Twist’s library preparation solution and target enrichment workflows. The panels offered through Twist will include:

  • The Twist Alliance CNTG Exome Panel, which enables whole exome analysis of genetic markers relevant to rare diseases.
  • The Twist Alliance CNTG Rare Disease Panel, which offers analysis of focused rare-disease-related sequences.
  • The Twist Alliance CNTG Hereditary Oncology Panel, which enables the detection of biomarkers that indicate a high risk of developing cancer.

“Twist Alliance panels enable research by providing access to expert-developed panels tailored to specific research areas. CENTOGENE brings highly curated expertise and data in rare diseases, an important complement to our existing Alliance panels,” says Emily M. Leproust, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “As we expand our offering of Alliance panels, we believe it is critical to offer expert-developed content in an off-the-shelf format, compatible with Twist’s extended custom panel offering, enabling a wider user base for these important tools.”