- Expanding services and offerings to the infectious disease community throughout the U.S. provides revenue growth opportunity
- Services at launch include rapid turnaround sequencing of clinical isolates, unique and differentiated interpretative services and the proprietary AREScloud web application for outbreak analysis
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN, “OpGen” or “the Company”), a precision medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and informatics to help combat infectious disease, announced today that it has launched next generation sequencing (NGS) services in the U.S. that were developed by its subsidiary, Ares Genetics (“Ares”), which strives to become a leader in bacterial genomics and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered antimicrobial resistance (AMR) solutions.
The Rockville-based laboratory enables OpGen to offer validated high quality sequencing and analysis services with rapid turnaround times. Services will provide the infectious disease community in the U.S. with routine sequencing of priority isolates and outbreak analyses that support their needs for surveillance, infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship.
Ares’ services include ARESiss, which is a fully validated whole genome sequencing workflow for bacterial isolates, now also being offered as a service to customers in the U.S. Reports from the sequencing service are conveniently accessible to customers via Ares’ web application AREScloud. The web application is also available by subscription for laboratories performing their own sequencing. A subscription enables customers to analyze data from isolates and metagenomic samples, to perform outbreak monitoring of pathogens and to query Ares’ proprietary AMR knowledgebase ARESdb in order to obtain rich information on AMR for analyzed samples.
We believe that the combination of sequencing services coupled with standalone software for outbreak analysis is unique in the US and comprises a purpose-built solution enabling customers to perform routine genomic surveillance regardless of their local access to sequencing.
The service portfolio also includes ARESid, a service to identify bacterial organisms present in samples, and ARESupa, a comprehensive AMR marker capture assay already offered through the Ares laboratory in Vienna, Austria.
In combination with the AREScloud web application, the Company provides sequencing and analysis services for key applications in microbiology including:
- Rapid and comprehensive genetic characterization of bacterial isolates:
- Taxonomic identification and sequence typing
- Detection of plasmids and other mobile elements, AMR and virulence markers
- Prediction of phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility using the Company’s proprietary ARESdb database
- Specialized software to support the analysis of bacterial outbreaks
- Culture-free species identification from native clinical or environmental samples
- Resistome surveillance from environmental samples such as wastewater.
“This is an exciting time in clinical microbiology,” said Dr. Arne Materna, CEO of Ares Genetics. “With improving sequencing capacity and turnaround times, the decline in costs and the development of new analytical tools, we are beginning to realize both the healthcare-related and economic benefits of routine microbial genome sequencing applications.”
To help curb the global spread of AMR pathogens, OpGen is expanding its commercial offering of Ares sequencing and analysis services aimed at clinical microbiologists and specialists in public health and infection prevention and control. Opening of the U.S. service lab provides immediate access to the Company’s validated whole genome sequencing service for clinical isolates.
“We are delighted to respond to customer demand by introducing commercial U.S. based services,” said Dr. Materna. “Researchers at leading U.S. healthcare institutions are already using Ares’ solutions to characterize AMR pathogens1,2. By opening the sequencing service lab in Rockville, Maryland, we bring a more complete suite of services based on our unique and validated platform for end-to-end whole genome sequencing and analysis of bacterial isolates to the U.S. and enable customers to characterize isolates and respond to local outbreaks in a timely manner. We believe the launch of these services provides us with an exciting revenue growth opportunity in the U.S. market going forward.”
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