Wellcome Sanger Institute Selects Arima Genomics as HiC Technology Partner; Company Announces Early Access Program for high-coverage HiC
Arima Genomics, Inc., a biotechnology company accelerating the adoption of the genome structure information, announced today that its new high-coverage HiC technology has been evaluated and implemented at the Wellcome Sanger Institute for projects, including the Darwin Tree of Life project, in an effort to explore the true genetic diversity between species and between individuals within a species.
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome science research hubs that advances the world’s understanding of the genetics of human health and disease. The Institute's research programs range from cancer genomics, single-cell human genetics, population human genetics and species evolution, and its findings have unlocked critical insights in the areas of drug development, new treatment options and novel biomaterials.
HiC data captures the three-dimensional folding patterns of genomes within cells, and consequently, it facilitates the assembly of its linear unfolded state. Such a linearized genome is the foundational representation of an organism’s DNA and is commonly used to compare genomes within and between species in order to elucidate the link between genetics and disease. The Wellcome Sanger Institute is using the next generation of Arima Genomics’ HiC kits developed to generate sequencing data with improved coverage uniformity. “The high-coverage HiC data provides more evenly distributed shotgun reads and associated long range linkages that aid the scaffolding of contigs to improve assembly contiguity,” said Michael Quail, Principal Scientific Manager, DNA Pipelines R&D at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. “The newer Arima kits are being used because we found them to be robust across a range of tissue types from diverse vertebrate and invertebrate species. Kit robustness to a diversity of samples is an essential requirement for the Darwin Tree of Life Project.”
Feedback and data generated by early customers helped to optimize toward low-input capability and varied sample storage conditions. “The high-coverage HiC kits generated high signal-to-noise libraries in samples with limited input amounts such as 2uL of zebra finch blood,” said Olivier Fedrigo, Director of the Vertebrate Genome Laboratory, The Rockefeller University. “Additionally, to mimic real world sample collection and storage conditions, we collected blood in ethanol tubes and preserved them at room temperature for a week – the Arima kits generated high-quality data despite potential sample degradation expected from such harsh conditions. Adaptability to field conditions is a key feature for the Vertebrate Genome Project (VGP), the Darwin Tree of Life Project, and the larger Earth BioGenome Project (EBP).”
In response to the community’s expectation that the production scale of genome assembly projects will get bigger, Arima is collaborating with academic partners to validate automation compatibility and optimize workflow speed to ensure quality, efficiency and convenience for the customer. “Nearly 20 years after the first draft assembly of the human genome was released, we are finally in a position to generate genome assemblies affordably at a cost less than $5,000 per gigabase genome size, nearly a million-fold down from $1 billion per gigabase two decades ago,” said Harris Lewin, Distinguished Professor at UC Davis and chair of the EBP. “Thanks to technological advances from industry partners, it is now possible to ascertain assemblies at very fine resolution in part because of the improved read coverage uniformity, and, also quickly in a span of days – creating an inflection point toward launching EBP with the aim to assemble DNA of all the planet’s eukaryote biodiversity, 1.5 million known species, over a period of 10 years.”
In addition to informing the linear unfolded states of genomes, HiC can also inform misfolded states of cancer genomes. In particular, cancer is a disease largely caused by genomic aberrations and such aberrations can be more accurately identified when the genome is observed from its innate three-dimensional structural state as captured by HiC. “Indeed, the folding information from HiC has proven to be an important component in our development of new algorithms for assembling structurally accurate cancer genomes,” said Shilpa Garg, K99 Fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. “More broadly, structurally accurate cancer genomes can help deconvolute the clonal architecture and evolution of tumor aberrations that impact therapeutics.”
As part of the plan to bring the latest Arima high-coverage kits to market, Arima Genomics today announced an Early Access Program. “Through this program, we aim to partner with the community to further validate the utility of genome structure information toward multiple areas of genomic science, from cancer evolution, T2T genome finishing, pan-genome analyses and species evolution, across a broad range of sample types and input amounts,” said Anthony Schmitt, Senior Vice President of Science at Arima Genomics. “We believe that the structural information of the genome is as fundamental as the sequence to shape the next generation of genomic discoveries – via launching relatable products, expanding structural applications, and financing our programs reliably from the proceeds of our Series A from earlier this year, we are excited to be part of this future.”
About Arima Genomics
Arima Genomics, Inc. is a biotechnology company that aims to accelerate the understanding of genome sequence and structure and their role in health, disease, and species evolution. For additional information, please visit: http://www.arimagenomics.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201005005090/en/
Contact information
Siddarth Selvaraj
CEO, Arima Genomics
sid@arimagenomics.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
SCENTMATIC's AI "KAORIUM" Debuts at THAMEEN Fragrance Launch in London's Selfridges4.7.2025 12:13:00 EEST | Press release
SCENTMATIC Inc., a leader in scent digitalization, introduced its AI-powered scent-to-language system, KAORIUM, at the THAMEEN Fragrance new product launch event. This pivotal event took place from June 5 to 11, 2025, at Selfridges department store in London, UK. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250703662207/en/ State of exhibition Global Expansion: KAORIUM Establishes UK Presence Europe leads the global fragrance market, with the UK projected to reach US$2.82 billion by 2033. Recognizing this, SCENTMATIC is rapidly expanding its international footprint. In May 2024, SCENTMATIC established its overseas subsidiary, KAORIUM, in London, appointing industry expert Ben Yanoushek as CEO. Official UK operations commenced on February 1, 2025, with the launch of its dedicated website: www.kaorium.com. KAORIUM Trialed at "Florentine Diamond" Launch Event The "Florentine Diamond" launch event for luxury brand THAMEEN Frag
Global Tourism Surging Ahead of Economic Growth, With Visits to Hit 30 Billion by 20344.7.2025 02:00:00 EEST | Press release
The World Economic Forum has today published a new report forecasting that the travel and tourism industry is projected to serve 30 billion tourist trips by 2034. Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point: Principles for Transformative Growth, produced in collaboration with Kearney and the Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia, reveals a projected $16 trillion contribution to global GDP by the same year—representing more than 11% of the total world economy, according to World Travel & Tourism Council estimates. The report also found that the sector is expanding 1.5 times faster than the global economy, generating significant commercial opportunities as long as the mounting challenges of climate change, labour shortages and infrastructure gaps are addressed. Inbound and outbound trips increasing fast Asia is on track to become the world’s fastest-growing tourism economy, with the direct travel and tourism GDP contribution expected to exceed 7% across the region by 2034. Notably, India and China
The 2025-2026 World Branding Awards Animalis Edition Honouring Leading Pet and Animal Brands Globally3.7.2025 22:00:00 EEST | Press release
The 2025-2026 World Branding Awards Animalis Edition marked its fifth instalment, bringing together leading pet and animal brands from all around the world. These brands were celebrated for their outstanding achievements, earning recognition as National, Regional, and Global Winners. The awards ceremony, held at Vienna's prestigious Hofburg Palace, welcomed winners across diverse categories, including pet food, retail, wellness, pet exhibitions, and aquatic products. Mounia Berrada-Gouzi expertly hosted the evening, which culminated in a grand celebration of brand excellence. “The Animalis Edition of the World Branding Awards recognises brands that have achieved the highest distinction—genuine recognition in the hearts and minds of consumers. Tonight, we honour those whose names resonate globally, whose values inspire loyalty, and whose presence defines excellence in the pet and animal industry,” said Richard Rowles, Chairman of the World Branding Forum. Out of over 950 brands nominate
Venture Global Announces 20-Year Sales and Purchase Agreement with PETRONAS3.7.2025 15:59:00 EEST | Press release
Today, Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE: VG) announced the execution of a new 20-year Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with PETRONAS LNG Ltd. (PLL), a subsidiary of the Malaysian state-owned oil and gas company, PETRONAS. Under the terms of the SPA, PETRONAS will purchase 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Venture Global’s third facility, CP2 LNG, for 20 years. This builds upon Venture Global’s existing agreement with PETRONAS for 1 MTPA of LNG supply from Plaquemines LNG. PETRONAS, a world-class partner in the LNG industry, joins other CP2 LNG customers in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world in a strategically important project to global energy supply and security. To date, approximately 10.75 MTPA of the 14.4 MTPA nameplate capacity for CP2 Phase One has been sold. About Venture Global Venture Global is a long-term, low-cost provider of U.S. LNG sourced from resource rich North American natural gas basins. Venture Global’s business includes assets ac
Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Novotech as 2025 Global Biotech CRO Company of the Year3.7.2025 15:05:00 EEST | Press release
In recognition of its innovation, client-focused delivery, and global impact, Novotech has been awarded the 2025 Global Biotechnology Contract Research Organization (CRO) Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250703950144/en/ Novotech Wins Global CRO Award Novotech is a globally recognized full-service clinical CRO and scientific advisory firm, trusted by biotech and small- to mid-sized pharmaceutical companies to advance their drug development programs at every phase. With a global footprint spanning Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe, Novotech supports over 5,000 clinical trial sites and a distributed team of experts delivering seamless, end-to-end solutions across geographies. “Novotech is redefining biotech-focused clinical research through AI-driven innovation, global expansion, and a client-embedded partnership model. With a clear vision to be the CRO of choice for
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom