SeqOne Genomics targets international markets

SeqOne Genomics, designer and developer of genomic data analysis solutions, aims to become a world leader in personalized genomic medicine. A goal made possible by the start-up's €20 million fund-raising.

The aim of personalized medicine is to understand the specific features of a disease in order to treat patients more effectively. Medicine that requires access to the " personalized blueprint " that is everyone's genome, and the ability to decipher and make sense of the thousands of mutations scattered across our DNA sequences. This is where start-up SeqOne Genomics comes in, offering high-performance genomic data analysis solutions for personalized medicine. The aim is to improve the clinical management of patients suffering from cancer, rare and hereditary diseases.

The company, founded in 2017 with the support of SATT AxLR (see box), the University of Montpellier and Inserm, has already scooped a number of awards including the iLab prize and the Hélène Starck prize - which rewards young researchers supported by the ARC Foundation - and can boast a strong position in the French market. A winning model for the company, which took a further step forward on January 24 by raising €20 million to accelerate the deployment of genomic medicine, with a view to international expansion.

Change of scale

" We're already present in half of France's university hospitals and 4 of the largest private-sector sites, so we've amply demonstrated that our product works and that it meets a real market need," boasts Jean-Marc Holder, Head of Strategy and Innovation at SeqOne. The next step for the start-up is to " scale up the business ". A change of scale made possible by this fund-raising, and which will take place in three main areas.

Firstly, internationalization," explains Jean-Marc Holder. In Europe first of all, and to this end we're going to double our workforce by the end of the year". This will increase the start-up's workforce from 40 to 80, and will enable us "to have a finer commercial network across the country". But SeqOne Genomics is thinking bigger, and further afield, with its sights set on the American market. "It's a market that many people dream of, but one that we need to be well prepared for ".

New treatments

The second area of development is investment in Big Data. " Or rather 'fat data', given the sheer volume of data involved - thousands of mutations per patient, given that each genome is equivalent to a 500 gigabyte hard disk," corrects Jean-Marc Holder. This is one of the major challenges of personalized medicine, and SeqOne's strength lies in its unrivalled ability to characterize genetic information ". This win-win personalization allows patients to be treated more rapidly, avoiding unnecessary and inappropriate treatments, and saving money for the healthcare system.

The third area of development is "the market for biopharmaceutical companies developing new therapies ", confides Jean-Marc Holder. The promise of better-targeted treatments thanks to a better understanding of disease mechanisms - that's what personalized medicine is all about.