Sirius and Golden Helix to Develop Companion Diagnostic for Septic Shock Therapies

Sirius Genomics and Golden Helix are pooling their expertise to develop a companion diagnostic for identifying patients most suited to treatment with Vasopressin and similar compounds used to treat septic shock and related disorders. The collaboration will involve Golden Helix applying its SNP/copy number variant (CNV) analysis technologies and predictive modeling expertise to Sirius’ diagnostic pipeline.

“Golden Helix is an ideal partner for Sirius Genomics’ pipeline development, providing us with access to significant expertise in GWAS analysis and bioinformatics capabilities,” notes Chris Wagner, Sirius president and CEO. “The combination of our funding from the National Research Council of Canada and this partnership with Golden Helix enables us to focus our strengths in discovery and development of our pipeline of companion diagnostic programs, and focus on improving outcomes in critical care medicine.”

Sirius is a Vancouver-based companion diagnostics firm currently focused on the development of DNA-based diagnostic and pharmacogenetic tests for sepsis. The company is exploiting specialist expertise in the correlation of genotype with phenotype to identify SNPs that act as improved response polymorphisms that are predictive of a positive response to a drug, and adverse response polymorphisms that are associated with an adverse reaction to a drug. Sirius’ initial product, currently at the validation stage, is a molecular diagnostic test to identify patients who will respond to Eli Lilly’s Xigris™ (activated Protein C), which it notes is the only FDA-approved drug for treating sepsis.

Bioinformatics firm Golden Helix specializes in products for SNP and copy-number analysis, along with genetic association software and analytic services. Its flagship SNP & Variation Suite 7 is an integrated collection of analytic tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing complex genomic data, including genome-wide SNP and CNV association studies, cancer copy number studies, and cytogenetic research. In August Golden Helix inked a distribution deal with Chinese firm CloudScientific, for distribution of the SNP and Variation Suite in China.