© BRYAN SATALINOFor people with no perceivable health issues but who are curious about some potential future ailments, there are now a handful of companies offering whole-genome or exome sequencing services to identify potential disease risks and other personal traits. The latest company to join the fray is Ambry Genetics, which plans to this year launch a whole-exome sequencing service, the firm announced at the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics annual meeting, being held in Phoenix this week.
“Right now we are in the development stages,” said Brigette Tippin Davis, director of Emerging Genetic Medicine at the Aliso Viejo, California-based company. “The plan is that [healthy] individuals would go to their doctor and, if they are curious about their genetic risks,” she said, they can “get a comprehensive test all in one.”
Whole-genome or -exome sequencing has traditionally been reserved for patients with a symptomatic disease for which all diagnostic avenues have been exhausted, said Davis. But Ambry Genetics and other companies—including Genos, based in San Francisco, San Diego–based Human Longevity, and Veritas, of Danvers, Massachusetts—are now widening the net.
Ambry Genetics wants “to increase access to testing,” said Davis. “This is a way to bring genetic stratification and customized primary care screening ...
