Press Releases

DNAnexus Announces Collaboration with AlidaBio to Enhance RNA Modification and Expression Analysis

AlidaBio EpiPlex™ customers now have cloud access to the EpiScout™ analysis software on DNAnexus’ secure, scalable precision health data cloud platform

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DNAnexus, provider of the leading enterprise platform for precision health data, and Alida Biosciences (AlidaBio), a leader in RNA epigenomic research tools, today announced a strategic collaboration designed to accelerate discovery and advance research into epitranscriptomics, the complex chemical modifications to RNA that regulate gene expression.

Epitranscriptomics research has the potential to significantly affect patient lives. Gaining an understanding of RNA epigenetic modifications offers opportunities for identifying new biomarkers and drug targets that are associated with diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders. These markers can indicate how patients will respond to certain treatments and help ensure they are enrolled in the right clinical trials that match them to the treatments most likely to give positive outcomes. The DNAnexus collaboration with Alida Biosciences allows researchers to establish these markers, enabling more personalized medicine approaches.

As part of the collaboration, AlidaBio’s EpiScout™ Analysis Suite Application will be exclusively hosted on the DNAnexus cloud platform. The user-friendly informatics solution was designed to accurately detect, analyze, and visualize epitranscriptomics activity. The EpiScout software analyzes data from sequencing libraries produced with AlidaBio’s EpiPlex™ RNA modification encoding kits. It includes custom algorithms for data normalization and uses machine learning-based peak calling technology to accurately identify regions of significant read enrichment and quantify the peaks. With seamless interpretation and data sharing, researchers can focus on biological discovery and large-scale experiments rather than technological challenges and workflow limitations.

“AlidaBio is proud to be part of the DNAnexus ecosystem for precision health data,” said Gudrun Stengel, PhD, CEO of AlidaBio. “The EpiScout application is an intuitive, cost-effective solution designed to accelerate the data-to-answer workflow for labs without specialized epitranscriptomics bioinformatics expertise.” 

“While NGS data is common today, complex analyses often require specific bioinformatics expertise. A cloud-based analysis tool like the DNAnexus platform empowers scientists at any level to analyze data while ensuring reproducibility,” said Hoang Quoc Hai Pham, graduate student, City of Hope National Medical Center. “It also makes data more accessible and easily shareable with collaborators. I enjoyed using it for my [EpiPlex] m6A-seq samples.”

Today, DNAnexus has more than 45,000 registered users across 48 countries and actively manages more than 105 petabytes of complex clinical, genomic, proteomic, and other multiomic datasets on behalf of a growing network of collaborators. Its comprehensive enterprise platform for precision health data meets the most rigorous industry standards for data quality, security, privacy, and regulatory compliance.

“This collaboration with AlidaBio is a great example of how we continue to expand our cloud-based applications and enable our customers to unlock more actionable information hidden in their large multiomic datasets,” said Thomas Laur, CEO of DNAnexus. “Together, we are making these easy-to-use epitranscriptomics tools accessible, empowering more researchers worldwide to discover the next wave of biomarkers and therapeutics.”

About Alida Biosciences

Alida Biosciences is revolutionizing epigenomics and leading the way in next-generation RNA modification analysis, empowering breakthroughs in research, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Founded in 2020, AlidaBio develops groundbreaking products that simplify bioinformatics, enabling concurrent analysis of multiple RNA modifications with relative quantification. Its solutions utilize RNA inputs suitable for clinically relevant samples, offering unparalleled workflow efficiency and accessibility. AlidaBio is proudly backed by Genoa Ventures, FusionX Ventures, and Vertical Venture Partners, alongside ongoing support from multiple SBIR grants from the National Human Genome Research Institute. For more information, please visit www.alidabio.com.

About DNAnexus

DNAnexus, the enterprise platform for precision health data, is on a mission to accelerate the development, approval, and delivery of personalized treatments. Building on more than 15 years of bioinformatics innovation and genomics expertise, DNAnexus powers a connected data ecosystem trusted by the world’s precision health leaders. This flexible ecosystem makes omics and real-world data accessible, actionable, and secure while unlocking insights that improve patient lives. For more information, visit www.dnanexus.com or follow @DNAnexus on social media.