Mayo Clinic, Thermo Fisher Launch Precure for Population-Scale Multi-Omics Data
The company plans to build a large multi-omics dataset by combining molecular data from up to one million biospecimens with longitudinal clinical information and other health-related data.
Mayo Clinic and Thermo Fisher Scientific have launched Precure LLC, a new company focused on generating population-scale molecular data to support the development of diagnostics, therapies, and other healthcare products.
Mayo Clinic is the majority owner of Precure, while Thermo Fisher is a minority owner. The company plans to build a large multi-omics dataset by combining molecular data from up to one million biospecimens with longitudinal clinical information and other health-related data.
Thermo Fisher will provide expertise and technologies in proteomics and mass spectrometry to support Precure’s data-generation efforts.
The launch builds on Mayo Clinic’s ongoing work to identify early biological signals associated with disease. In July, Mayo Clinic launched Precure Research, an investigator-led initiative examining genes, proteins, metabolites, clinical records, wearable-device data and environmental exposures to identify changes that may occur before clinical symptoms emerge.
Precure is expected to provide the infrastructure and collaborations needed to scale this work to population-level molecular datasets. The company will also work on translating insights from these datasets into potential diagnostics, therapies and other healthcare products.
Mayo Clinic plans to connect longitudinal clinical information collected over multiple years with molecular data generated from biospecimens. The company said artificial intelligence and large-scale data analytics will be used to identify patterns across the datasets and generate actionable insights.
Mayo Clinic began the Precure prospective study in January with funding from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. The study plans to enroll up to 100,000 participants and analyze biospecimens including blood, urine, saliva and stool. Participants will also provide voice recordings and complete surveys.
Mayo Clinic has allocated up to five years to develop the multi-omics and phenotype dataset.
Thermo Fisher CEO Marc Casper said Precure could expand the use of multi-omics data for earlier disease detection, drug development and more precise therapies.
The partnership extends an existing relationship between the two organizations. In 2021, Mayo Clinic and Thermo Fisher partnered on the clinical validation of next-generation sequencing, mass spectrometry and immunology diagnostic tools.
Stay tuned for more such updates on Digital Health News