Strand Life Sciences to set up Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine

Strand Life Sciences, a global life sciences company headquartered in Bangalore, is collaborating with the San Francisco Bay Area based El Camino Hospitals to locate a Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at the Genomics Medicine Institute of the El Camino Hospital to accelerate the adoption of next generation sequencing-based research panels and counseling services by the physicians at the Hospital and its partner clinics.

A Letter of Understanding was signed on December 4 by Dr Vijay Chandru, Chairman and CEO, Strand Life Sciences and Dr Eric A Pifer, Chief Medical Officer of El Camino Hospital. This signals the start of a collaborative effort to bring advanced genomic tests in cardiology, oncology, pharmaco-genomics and personalised medicine to the community served by the El Camino Hospital.

The signing was in the presence of the Mayor of San Francisco, Edwin M Lee and delegates from El Camino Hospital and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation who are visiting Bangalore as part of the “San Francisco – Bangalore Sister City Initiative”.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Vijay Chandru, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Strand Life Sciences said “It gives us immense pleasure to partner with El Camino Hospital, a leading Healthcare provider in the US. The Strand Center will provide them with genomics-based analysis and interpretation for improved health outcomes. Strand has a distinguished team of over 200 scientists and researchers working to create some unique solutions in Genomics and Personalized Medicine. Today’s partnership is recognition of our commitment to bringing best in class technologies for healthcare closer to people all over the globe.”

Dr Eric Pifer, Chief Medical Officer for El Camino Hospital said, “El Camino is very excited to work with Strand Life Sciences on a series of projects around bringing genomic medicine to clinical practice. ECH is focused on the practical aspects of clinical medicine, while Strand’s expertise, as embodied by their tagline, lies in providing ‘Algorithms for Life.’ So it is a perfect marriage between partners with diverse expertise and a unified vision.”

The El Camino Hospital has an active Genomics Medicine Institute that has been engaged in continuing education in genomics for physicians and some genetic counseling of patients. Strand has been a pioneer in the delivery of advanced clinical genomics solutions for healthcare institutions in India since early 2013. Coming from this new focus is StrandOmics, a proprietary solution for clinical interpretation of genomic variants in patient samples with deeper insights leading to informed decisions by physicians.

EH News Bureau