Ultima, NVIDIA, Google Partner on Pangenome-Aware Whole Genome Sequencing

September 9, 2026

By Bio-IT World Staff 

September 9, 2026 | Ultima Genomics and NVIDIA are collaborating to enable pangenome-aware whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis, combining Ultima’s high-output, cost-efficient sequencing platform with accelerated GPU-enhanced computational approaches from NVIDIA and Google’s open source DeepVariant for pangenome graph alignment and variant calling. The collaboration aims to make pangenome-aware WGS variant calling practical. 

Compared to a standard reference genome, a human pangenome reference includes diverse, non-redundant DNA sequences from multiple individuals typically embedded in a graph structure. The pangenome reference released by the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium assembled 88 haplotypes from 44 individuals and integrated them into a pangenome graph. Interpreting sequencing reads in light of the human pangenome has been shown to improve read mapping and structural variant genotyping.

The new collaboration between Ultima, NVIDIA, and Google’s DeepVariant includes joint benchmarking and validation of pangenome-aware approaches using genetically diverse human genomes, comparing workflows based on pangenome graph alignment with traditional linear-reference pipelines against high-confidence ground truth data. The teams are evaluating workflows based on community pangenome resources such as the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) and Google DeepVariant best practices for pangenome-aware variant calling, with the goal of identifying robust, scalable approaches suitable for real-world deployment. 

In parallel, Ultima is working with partners on infrastructure and system design optimized for cost-effective pangenome and WGS analysis, enabling researchers to efficiently process massive sequencing datasets while retaining flexibility to adopt future methods and data models. Ultima’s internal implementations achieve significant computational efficiency gains and acceleration by combining on-board CPU approaches with NVIDIA accelerated computing. Additionally, NVIDIA Parabricks provides GPU-accelerated versions of Giraffe and DeepVariant to meet the computational demands of population-scale sequencing projects. 

“Pangenomes are a critical next step for capturing global human genetic diversity and improving the accuracy of genomic analysis,” said Gilad Almogy, CEO of Ultima Genomics in a press release about the work. “With large-scale WGS initiatives accelerating globally, this work with NVIDIA and Google allows us to pair ultra high-scale sequencing with GPU-accelerated pangenome graph analysis to move these methods from research concepts into capabilities that can be operationally deployed to support large-scale efforts.”

"New pangenome methods dramatically improve the accuracy of genomic analyses," said Andrew Carroll of Google Research in the same press release. “By combining Google’s open source methods to detect genetic variants with the unparalleled scale of Ultima sequencing and the speed of NVIDIA, the genomics community can start a flywheel where new datasets further improve diagnostics and drug discovery and create tools and analysis standards openly available to the broader science community."

The joint work reflects a shared commitment to open, future-proof genomic ecosystems and lays the foundation for expansion beyond DNA sequencing into additional modalities over time, the companies said.