Nucleus Genomics launches to bring whole-genome sequencing to the public

(Press-News.org) Nucleus Genomics, the next-generation genetic testing and analysis company, today announced the launch of its DNA analysis product to bring the benefits of personalized medicine to everyone.

DNA and health are inextricably linked, but profound insights into how DNA can shape health are missing from healthcare. Customers who’ve previously done microarray genetic testing with older testing companies can upload their DNA data onto Nucleus’ platform to receive greater insights into their genetic risk for diseases like type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and many more. Nucleus further personalizes these risk assessments by integrating personal and lifestyle factors into their analysis — such as age, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and BMI.

Nucleus will also offer pre-orders for its premium clinical-grade whole-genome sequencing (WGS) service, in which a customer’s entire set of DNA will be read and analyzed. These more comprehensive WGS results will start to become available in the summer. For a yearly membership fee of $39, members will receive access to new features on Nucleus’ platform, as well as new disease reports and, eventually, reports for traits like height and muscle strength. The 30x WGS kit costs $399.

“Nucleus is combining the power of whole-genome sequencing with our innovative genomic analyses — ushering in a new era of personalized medicine to the public,” says founder and CEO Kian Sadeghi. "DNA insights will become a commonplace tool that everyone uses to make important decisions about their health and lifestyle."

Nucleus is proud to sequence all customer samples in the U.S. on Illumina’s NovaSeq X Plus, the sequencing company’s newest and most innovative high-throughput sequencing instrument. Working with Illumina, Nucleus is leveraging this latest sequencing technology to make WGS broadly accessible to power personalized healthcare.

Nucleus has also been awarded CLIA certification and CAP accreditation for its WGS informatics laboratory in North Carolina. This ensures customer whole-genome sequencing results are always of the highest, clinical-grade quality. The company also offers its WGS members access to SteadyMD, an independent network of doctors and board-certified genetic counselors who can help customers better understand the implications of their WGS results, for themselves and their families.

Personalized insights, always meaningful

The company — which raised a total of $18 million in seed funding in 2022 from venture capital firms such as Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund – aims to use the power of genomics to help people live longer and healthier by providing insights into the genetics underpinning their health and well-being.

Nucleus will provide polygenic risk scores (PRS), an innovative analysis that calculates the combined impact of common DNA variants on a person’s disease risks and trait dispositions. The analysis also integrates an individual’s environmental and lifestyle information for a more comprehensive picture of their overall or absolute risk for complex, common diseases. As people change over their lifetimes and as new scientific discoveries are made, Nucleus members’ disease risk scores will automatically update — evolving with them to stay relevant and meaningful. By adding WGS to the analysis, Nucleus can also identify rare, high-impact variants. These variants exist across both common and rare disorders, like those found in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that significantly increase the risk for breast and other cancers.

“Nucleus is the all-in-one genetic test,” says Sadeghi. “The promise of the Human Genome Project has finally arrived.”

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