![]() ![]() “The key variable that next-gen sequencing and in particular that Illumina technology changed was the ability to access the genome or the transcriptome in an unbiased, deep way, rapidly and at scale,” Omead Ostadan, a former Illumina executive who was recently named Seer’s COO and president, told Endpoints. And everyone is comparing themselves to Illumina, the $60 billion sequencing giant, which itself has a proteomics division. ![]() A new company, called Nautlius, launched this year with over $100 million from prominent tech funds with a similar promise, but they are earlier stage and have yet to disclose their tech. Seer claims to be able to do screening in a “fast and unbiased way,” similar to how we can now analyze genes - a quick and complete picture. Researchers also have techniques to map out every protein in a blood sample, but it can take months. Several companies have popped up, most notably SomaLogic, offering to screen people’s blood for a limited set of proteins data have indicated correlates with disease. That’s changed to a degree in recent years. ![]() The technological or computing power simply did not exist to analyze all of them at a rate comparable to how researchers can analyze genes. They can also change after translation. Proteins can be made of up to 20 amino acids that bind in myriad ways. Genes are comparatively simple: 4 base pairs, each of which can only bind in one direction. The problem is that it’s far harder to get a complete picture of someone’s proteins than it is of their genes. The proteome has long been a source of fascination for scientists, for the simple fact that we’re built of proteins, and changes in the concentration or shape of proteins are what ultimately underlie changes in function and disease. It’s a bold talk for a field full of it, although it’s now at least burnished by peer-reviewed data - something that cannot be said for all of Seer’s competitors. ![]() This technology allows you to begin to interrogate the human proteome in an unbiased way, deep, in … speed and scale.” “We now enable what was previously not possible,” Farokhzad told Endpoints News. “Today about every 25 seconds, someone sequence another’s human genome. ![]()
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