Personalis Co-Founder Dr. Atul Butte MD, Stanford University, Recognized at the White House
Personalis Co-Founder Dr. Atul Butte MD, Stanford University, Recognized at the White House
Key genome interpretation technology developed by Dr. Butte's lab is being commercialized by Personalis, Inc., under exclusive license.
MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Personalis, Inc. today announced that one of its co-founders, Dr. Atul Butte MD, is to be recognized today in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC. Along with 12 other scientists, Dr. Butte is being recognized as part of the White House "Champions of Change" program. Through this program, the White House highlights individuals, businesses, and organizations whose extraordinary stories and accomplishments positively impact our communities.
To watch this event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 1:00 pm ET on June 20th. To learn more about the White House Champions of Change program, visit www.whitehouse.gov/champions.
Dr. Butte is a pediatrician, geneticist, computer scientist, and entrepreneur at Stanford University and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Over five years ago, when very few human genomes had ever been sequenced, he initiated a major effort to create a high quality database, manually curated from the scientific and medical literature, linking genetic variation with disease. This database was exclusively licensed by Personalis and its curation is being continued at an even higher rate by the company. This is now thought to be the largest manually curated database of its type in the world. Dr. Butte's lab also pioneered methods for combining multiple genetic risk factors for a disease, for combining genetic and environmental risks, and other advanced techniques. Personalis is making these technologies broadly available through its Accuracy and Content Enhanced (ACETM) Exome and Whole Genome Sequencing, and its Genome Services for Researchers and Clinicians.
In 2010, Dr. Butte joined with a large Stanford team to publish the first clinical assessment incorporating a human genome (Lancet, May 1, 2010). This led to one of the first analyses of genomes from a healthy family quartet (PLoS Genetics, Sept 15, 2011). While these publications pioneered many new technologies and have been broadly cited, it became clear that to scale to the large number of genomes then imminent, the technology would need to be commercialized. Dr. Butte joined with three other Stanford faculty members (Dr. Michael Snyder, Dr. Russ Altman and Dr. Euan Ashley) and with John West (former CEO of the DNA sequencing company Solexa) to found Personalis. Mr. West became CEO and the Stanford faculty members founded its scientific advisory board.
Dr. Butte commented that "It is great to see the work started at Stanford University be carried forward and made available to the world by Personalis."
Personalis CEO, John West, stated, "We are pleased to see this great recognition for Dr. Butte's vision and leadership. Work at his lab and those of others at Stanford have contributed greatly to advancement of the field. It has been terrific working with him and we strongly applaud today's recognition by the White House."
About Personalis
Personalis provides researchers and clinicians accurate DNA sequencing and interpretation of human genomes. Our ACE (Accuracy and Content Enhanced) Technology™ can supplement a standard exome or genome, substantially increasing its medically-relevant coverage and accuracy. Personalis builds on this enhanced sequencing foundation with innovative algorithms and proprietary databases for alignment, variant calling, annotation, and analysis. This combination of technologies enables Personalis to provide genomic data and interpretation of the highest accuracy.
Personalis has an exceptional team of scientific, medical and industry experts. Our R&D team brings directly relevant commercial experience from seven different DNA sequencing companies and scientific & medical expertise from the top universities in the world. This group has been deeply involved in many of the advances in genomics of recent years, and has a long track record of peer reviewed publications. We see enormous potential in human genome sequencing's next big step: accurate interpretation.
Personalis
Carol Tillis, 1-650-752-1300
pr@personalis.com
www.personalis.com
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