CDx, NGS and regulation: five perspectives from the Pistoia Alliance.

Companion diagnostics (CDx) are essential to the practice of precision medicine. Next-generation sequencing is an increasingly important tool in the development of CDx. However, for CDx to be deployed, many different biopharma industry sectors need to collaborate.

Acute myeloid leukemia with basophilic differentiation in a 3-year-old Standardbred gelding.

A 3-year-old Standardbred gelding with a history of pyrexia, persistent hemorrhage from the oral cavity, and a large, soft swelling at the junction of the caudal aspect of the mandibular rami and proximal neck was evaluated. The horse had neutropenia and anemia, with atypical granulated cells in a blood smear. Additional tests confirmed acute myeloid leukemia with basophilic differentiation, which has been reported in humans, cats, dogs, and cattle but not horses.

Sapientia: accelerating rare disease diagnosis and treatment.

Congenica (Cambridge, UK) is a world leading developer of genome-based discovery and diagnostic technologies. The UK company is a spin-out from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) and was founded by scientists and clinicians at the leading edge of genomic analysis. Congenica's Sapientia™ technology platform allows whole-genome sequence analysis to be easily interpreted and presented within a clinically actionable diagnostic report.

Outbreak investigation of porcine epidemic diarrhea in swine in Ontario.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus was first diagnosed in Ontario in January of 2014. An outbreak investigation was conducted and it was hypothesized that feed containing spray-dried porcine plasma contaminated with the virus was a risk factor in the introduction and spread of the disease in Ontario.