Cognizant selected as technology partner for 100,000 Genomes project

The project intends to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from about 70,000 are participants with various types of cancer or rare diseases.

Participants are NHS patients with a rare disease, their families, and patients with cancer.

The project intends to allow new scientific discovery, medical insights and diagnostics. After completion, the NHS will be able to provide genomic medicine and personalised treatments to patients with conditions that are difficult to treat at present.

The two-year deal requires Cognizant to offer systems integration and analytics services for the technology platform built by Genomics England.

Under the project, researchers will study how best to use genomics in healthcare and interpret the data to help patients. They will also investigate causes, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Genomics England informatics infrastructure head David Brown said: "We selected Cognizant for its extensive life sciences capabilities, knowledge of research, management and analysis of clinical data sets, and experience in working with the UK public sector organisations."

Cognizant life sciences practice vice president Bhaskar Sambasivan said: "Large-scale sequencing initiatives like the UK’s 100,000 Genomes Project require a flexible, secure operating platform to help drive innovation in new diagnostic and treatment options for patients and healthcare providers.

"Our culture of investing in understanding our customers’ businesses, deep programme management expertise in the healthcare and life sciences industry, and robust system integration and business analytics capabilities enable us to deliver a broad range of solutions for Genomics England as it creates genome sequences and clinical data at an unprecedented scale."