Illumina, Mayo Work to Ensure Interoperability in BaseSpace Suite

By Allison Proffitt

November 10, 2016 | Mayo Clinic and Illumina announced plans yesterday to work together on several Illumina software offerings including BaseSpace Clarity LIMS, BaseSpace Sequence Hub, and BaseSpace Variant Interpreter.

Processing genomic samples from DNA to report can be challenging and cumbersome, Brady Davis, Illumina’s head of strategy and market development for Enterprise Informatics, told Bio-IT World. “There’s so much data they have to sift through and so many different tools that they have to integrate with—the interoperability aspects of that are challenging.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Mayo will implement BaseSpace Clarity LIMS in specific laboratories to provide testing of the tool. Mayo Clinic will also deploy and provide feedback on its use of BaseSpace Sequence Hub and BaseSpace Variant Interpreter.

The tools themselves aren’t new. Clarity LIMS (acquired when Illumina bought GenoLogics in August 2015) and Variant Interpreter are part of the BaseSpace Informatics Suite which also includes Cohort Analyzer and Correlation Engine. Illumina released BaseSpace Suite earlier this year, a new formulation of the BaseSpace environment Illumina launched in 2012.  

But Davis says that feedback from Mayo will be instrumental in further developing the software products and determining what next steps should be made.

“As you look to build software in this marketplace, especially around integrating that software with other disparate datasets and disparate data tools, it becomes really important to work with the key opinion leaders and those organizations that are willing to test the software,” Davis said. “Mayo Clinic is really helping us to look at ways that this can be a more accelerated, enterprise-based solution by helping us look at building out all those integrations and building out that streamlined path and see what works best within their environment. We can take that learning and build a better solution, not only for them but for others.”

Mayo will be deploying the pipelines in hereditary disease research, but Davis emphasized that nothing about the pipeline is indication-specific. Illumina’s goal, Davis said, is to improve interoperability and integration for enterprise-level software solutions that can deliver value and be deployed in all kinds of settings. He did predict that some of what Illumina learns during the collaboration could help guide new content or tools. “Understanding what additional content or additional types of tools we should build into our solution to help drive that value.”