The popularity of — and demand for — individual DNA testing has risen over the last few years. Although the genomics market is still relatively small, the number of consumers purchasing whole genome sequencing tests, such as Dante Labs’ MyGenome Sequencing Test, is likely to grow as more people decide to optimise their lifestyles using the data gained from sequencing their genomes.
Whether taking preventative steps against a hereditary disease or improving their diet and exercise routines, individuals who have access to their genomic information can enjoy a personalised approach to healthcare.
The inevitable rise in whole genome sequencing will require powerful digital platforms to analyse and transform genetic data into user-friendly reports. Here, the genomic testing company Dante Labs’ CEO and co-founder Andrea Riposati reveals how the company’s platform is scaling genomic testing capabilities to serve a future where millions can sequence their genomes monthly.
Whole Genome Sequencing With Dante Labs
From the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, UK, and its cutting-edge laboratories in Europe, Dubai, and the U.S., Dante Labs provides whole genome sequencing solutions to individuals, doctors, medical clinics, and governments around the world.
Established in Italy in 2015, Dante Labs offered genomic diagnostics solutions before expanding into therapeutics, providing customers with guidance on how their sequencing results could help them improve their health.
Dante Labs offers customers four primary DNA testing and analysis solutions: the MyGenome Sequencing, ColoAlert, and Rare Disease tests, plus the Upload Your DNA Data service.
After sequencing an individual’s entire DNA, the company produces detailed genomic data results and various personalised reports on well-being, nutrition, and fitness.
These personalised reports — along with the company’s 90 Genomics Reports — contain extensive, practical information on customers’ current health and any conditions that they are at risk of developing.
Whether enabling their doctors to provide more effective treatments, learning how to manage or prevent genetic diseases, or leveraging their genetic strengths to optimise their fitness routines, Dante Labs customers receive powerful tools and resources to help them improve their health.
The Three Pillars of Dante Labs’ Software Platform
Dante Labs’ platform is a large part of the company’s success story. Built to be platform-agnostic and meet the genomic industry’s current and future needs, the platform offers the company distinct competitive advantages in the genomics, diagnostics, oncology, software, and pharma industries.
The multi-services platform comprises three pillars:
1. Extensa Software
Extensa Software allows Dante Labs to translate genomic and medical data into actionable insights. Extensa is CE-IVD medical software that complies with the current European regulatory framework.
To guarantee safety and quality while analysing medical data and ensure best practices at every stage of the genomic testing process, the platform also meets ISO 13485, an internationally agreed regulatory standard.
2. The Dante DB Database
The platform’s second key element is its whole genome sequencing database.
While most genetic tests analyse DNA fragments to find an answer to a specific health query, whole genome sequencing technology allows Dante Labs to read 100% of an individual’s DNA. By definition, this genomic data is the most comprehensive possible.
3. Avanti Software
The third pillar of Dante Labs’ platform is Avanti Software, which integrates biology and technology in the company’s clinical labs to turn customers’ genetic data into clinical-grade reports.
Every time the lab sequences a sample, the software produces and stores automated tags and metrics of an individual’s genetic data. Avanti also sends feedback to the lab, enabling the company to focus on sequencing DNA areas that are more relevant for a specific patient.
The web-based app accepts DNA data of any type and allows customers to access reports that guide health and lifestyle decisions.
How Dante Labs’ Platform Incorporates Artificial Intelligence
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly brought AI-driven technologies to the medical sector. However, not all laboratories have embraced technological developments.
Andrea Riposati explains that many labs, whether they conduct simple blood analysis or more complex genetic tests, still use a small-scale approach. Often, labs will analyse samples and produce results one order at a time.
Dante Labs was an early adopter of AI-driven technology, investing in automation from the beginning of its company life. Integrating AI into the Dante Labs platform has helped the company reduce errors, improve the quality of analyses, and accelerate processes. This way, Dante Labs provides customers with genomic results and answers to their queries in a shorter time frame and at a more affordable price.
Trends in the Genome Sequencing Market
The genome sequencing market is gathering momentum and, according to Andrea Riposati, is fast approaching an inflection point. Though today fewer than one million people sequence their genomes annually, the Dante Labs CEO envisages a future where millions sequence their genomes every month.
Andrea Riposati predicts two trends for the genome sequencing market: increasing diversification and decreasing costs.
Historically, a small number of genomic testing companies have dominated the market, such as BGI Group in China and Illumina in the United States. (Illumina was one of the first companies to lower the cost of whole genome sequencing below $1,000.)
Increasingly, companies are launching new genomic testing technologies, in turn bringing more competition to the market. Andrea Riposati compares this shift to the early days of the computing industry, when companies like IBM (the International Business Machines Corporation) eventually gave way to newcomers like HP Inc (then the Hewlett-Packard Company) and Compaq.
The rising diversification of companies offering sequencing technologies and hardware means increasing competition between these organisations. As a result of companies producing better technologies and competing for market dominance, consumers tend to benefit from lower genomic sequencing costs.
Designing Dante Labs’ Platform With the Future in Mind
As whole genome sequencing becomes more mainstream, the most successful genomic companies will be those with future-proofed platforms that can handle the scale and complexity of data and generate fast, cost-effective reports for customers.
Andrea Riposati leveraged his experience at Amazon to ensure Dante Labs’ bioinformatics team built the company’s platform to be scalable, fast, and flexible while eliminating high fixed costs.
Platform-Agnostic
The company began by outsourcing genomic sequencing to various external platforms and internalised the sequencing process after building its first lab in 2019. Still, Dante Labs maintained an agnostic approach to platforms that will allow the company to keep up with developments in sequencing technology.
In the same way that Microsoft Windows software works with most PC devices, Dante Labs’ unique platform can work with various data and sequencing technologies. That includes the technologies of existing companies, like Illumina, and newcomers to the genomic sequencing market, such as Element Biosciences and Ultima Genomics.
Speed and Accuracy
It takes under two minutes for Dante Labs’ platform to run an analysis and generate a genomic report from a customer’s whole genome sequencing data. The platform doesn’t compromise accuracy for speed as it continuously improves the precision of its analyses.
Andrea Riposati explains that the increasing precision of the platform’s analyses will open up more data. Deeper genomic insights may result in more patients receiving help from Dante Labs than ever before. The company aims to become the global leader in genome sequencing data analysis, meeting the demand that will one day arise from consumers, clinics, and labs worldwide.
Expanding Dante Labs’ Reach
Currently, doctors, individuals, and medical practices across 97 countries use Dante Labs’ global genomics platform. The company has customers in some of the world’s most remote locations, including the Marshall Islands (a chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean).
There are plans to continue widening the company’s reach, enabling more customers to benefit from the power of whole genome sequencing and providing clinics with end-to-end genomic testing solutions.
Dante Labs is beginning to work with clinics and governments in countries that Andrea Riposati describes as being, for the most part, neglected by Western commercial organisations. He explains how rewarding it is to expand into new markets in regions like Africa and the Middle East and serve consumers with genomic testing needs that have, until now, gone unmet.
About Dante Labs
Dante Labs enables people around the world to invest in preventative healthcare to protect their well-being and enhance their lifestyles. The company’s mission is “to accelerate science to save human lives.” Dante Labs works with various genomic clients, from private consumers to medical practitioners and organisations like Harvard University and Imperial College London.
Under the guidance of co-founder and CEO Andrea Riposati, the company has created the most scalable platform on the market. The NovaSeq 6000 System offers accurate, lower-cost sequencing solutions in two weeks, beating the eight-week turnaround time of most labs.
Dante Labs also offers free shipping to all customers in any location. Individuals can access DNA test kits whether they live near Dante Labs’ laboratories or remote corners of the globe.
Dante Labs’ whole genome sequencing and whole exome sequencing tests can distinguish single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), copy number variations (CNVs), and large structural variants (SVs). In future, the company intends to develop tests for predispositions for pharmacogenomic biomarkers and heterozygous and homozygous variants and perform carrier screening.
