By Exec Edge Editorial Staff
Until recently, DNA tests have been costly and inaccessible for many individuals, researchers, and clinicians. But, over the past seven years, Andrea Riposati and Mattia Capulli’s global genomics and precision medicine company, Dante Labs, has made these tests more accessible to people all over the world.
Dante Labs uses the most advanced genome sequencing technology available today to understand the hereditary conditions that an individual could be at risk of developing. But the company also takes this one step further, interpreting its genome sequencing findings through proprietary software to make personalized lifestyle recommendations for customers.
Here, we’ll explore what makes Dante Labs an innovator in the global science community for customers, medical practices, and researchers.
What Is Genome Sequencing?
Genome sequencing is a laboratory method that identifies:
- An organism’s entire genetic make-up.
- Any genetic variations in the organism’s DNA.
By analyzing this genetic data, scientists can uncover essential medical information that is unique to the organism.
What Type of Genome Sequencing Does Dante Labs Use?
Dante Labs specializes in whole genome sequencing, which is the only genetic test that can decipher an individual’s whole DNA.
Dante Labs offers 30x coverage of its genome sequencing. Scientists analyze each individual’s data 30 times, collecting more valuable genetic information with each pass. All customers need to do is provide a saliva sample.
How Does Dante Labs Support Customers?
Dante Labs supports customers with four primary DNA testing and analysis solutions: the MyGenome Sequencing, Rare Disease, and ColoAlert tests, plus the Upload Your DNA Data service.
1. MyGenome Sequencing Test
Rather than going through separate tests to check for different conditions, customers can opt for the MyGenome Sequencing Test. This single test analyzes an individual’s entire DNA so they can learn about their risk of developing over 50 conditions and diseases.
This investment lasts a lifetime: Customers can query their results at any time and receive answers in minutes. This means that a patient who receives a disease diagnosis, at any point after having completed the test, can provide their doctor with their genomics report. The doctor can use this report to make treatment decisions, potentially avoiding treatments that would likely cause an adverse reaction in the patient.
To complete the MyGenome Sequencing test, customers:
- Create a Genome Manager account with Dante Labs and enter their Kit ID, which they will find on their test box or tube.
- Take their blood sample using the painless, non-invasive home blood collection kit. This simple kit includes a user-friendly device that is FDA-approved and CE-IVD marked.
Customers receive their results within a few weeks in their digital portal. They can share these results with their medical practitioners and/or book a session with a Dante Labs genetic specialist to discuss their results.
Access to Insightful Reports
Once a customer has completed the test, they can access Dante Labs’ range of 90 Genomics Reports. These reports address several medical areas, including neurology, autoimmune health, and hereditary cancer. Each report transforms genomic data into actionable, clinically relevant insights.
Customers also receive three personalized reports:
- A health report: This report details the individual’s risk of developing medical conditions and rare diseases throughout their lifetime. The report also includes comprehensive advice on how to manage this risk through lifestyle choices.
- A nutrition and wellness report: This report provides the individual with a unique dietary profile that reveals any nutrient deficiencies and explains which food groups they are sensitive or allergic to. This report also explores the individual’s body composition, personality traits, and sleep characteristics.
- A fitness report: This report offers a bespoke exercise plan that can enhance the individual’s genetic strengths through fitness routines involving aerobic exercise, HIIT, or strength training. The customer can learn how they can help their body perform at its best while reducing the risk of injury.
Dante Labs produces these reports for individuals and patient advocacy groups.
2. Rare Disease Test
Dante Labs has also developed the most comprehensive DNA test for rare diseases ever to exist. The test identifies uncommon diseases, and customers can access unlimited reanalyses.
The rare disease test examines phenotypic and genomic data to solve complicated genetic cases. The test has led to the diagnosis of 31% more rare diseases than other tests and the detection of double the number of genetic variants that whole exome sequencing has achieved.
Given that 80% of rare diseases have a genetic component, more than 150 million people are affected by rare diseases worldwide, and the average rare disease diagnosis journey involves 2-3 misdiagnoses and 4-8 physicians over 5-7 years, this DNA test has the potential to improve the livelihoods of millions of people.
With this next-generation sequencing test, individuals who have rare diseases can finally complete their diagnosis odysseys, access information that has been unavailable to them, and receive the treatments they need.
3. ColoAlert Test
Colon cancer is often symptom-free, which is why so many diagnoses are not made until the cancer has progressed. But colon cancer is easier to cure if detected early.
Dante Labs’ ColoAlert Test is a next-generation screening test for colon cancer. The test identifies 85% of colon cancer cases, often in the earliest stages, and catches up to 60% more cases than fecal immunochemical tests (FITs).
Individuals can use the simple collection kit to complete a stool sample at home in five minutes. The test checks for bleeding and non-bleeding tumors through tumor DNA. Individuals then undergo a painless, non-invasive screening routine every three years. This screening routine aims to identify colon cancer as early as possible.
4. Upload Your DNA Data
Individuals who have already received DNA insights from Ancestry.com or 23andMe can learn more about this DNA with Dante Labs’ Upload Your DNA Data service. When customers upload their DNA data to the Dante Labs portal, they can receive advanced, up-to-date reports about their health, wellness, fitness, and nutrition.
Customers who sign up for this service will receive an email that invites them to upload their data. Once they have uploaded their data, they will receive their report in less than five minutes.
How Does Dante Labs Support Researchers?
Dante Labs’ genomic solutions aim to make genomic testing a gold standard in research practice. The solutions support researchers who are working to uncover breakthrough discoveries in the genomics space.
These researchers may need to perform large and small whole genome sequencing, de novo sequencing, and/or short- and long-read sequencing to learn more about human, animal, plant, virus, bacterium, or microbiome genomes.
Dante Labs offers short-read sequencing (Illumina), long-read sequencing (PacBio or Oxford Nanopore), or a combination of both, depending on:
- How difficult to read the regions of the genome are.
- Whether it is necessary to detect large structural variants.
- Whether the de novo assembly of unique genes is necessary.
Not only is whole genome sequencing the most powerful tool available for genomics research today, but Dante Labs’ ability to produce and sequence large volumes of data at a low cost makes this type of sequencing accessible to researchers.
Dante Labs’ whole genome sequencing solutions offer various coverage and turnaround time options to meet different researchers’ needs. The company can help researchers sequence as few as one bacteria or thousands of large whole genomes.
While Dante Labs offers 30x coverage for germline and human whole genome sequencing, the company can achieve 60x, 90x, and more than 90x coverage for oncology.
Dante Labs analyzes all tests at CLIA-certified laboratories to ensure researchers receive accurate results. The bioinformatics analysis includes tier 1, 2, and 3 analyses; genomic interpretation reports; flexible data delivery and storage; and unlimited Amazon AWS cloud storage.
How Does Dante Labs Support Medical Practices?
Dante Labs offers the most advanced genomic technology for concierge medical practices. This technology informs a proprietary Whole Genome Sequencing Test. To complete this test, medical practices can collect patient samples using a simple auto-collection blood kit. Alternatively, patients can provide their samples from the comfort of their own homes.
Once the tests have been analyzed, Dante Labs’ network of genetic counselors uses medical practices’ patients’ genomic data to determine diagnoses and effective treatment plans. These counselors work through the treatment plans with both medical practitioners and their patients.
On top of this, Dante Labs’ Patients Success Team is on hand to offer 24/7 support and answer questions.
Patients and practitioners can also track their complete genome analysis on the Genome Manager platform.
The Clinical Lab in a Box Solution
Dante Labs also offers the end-to-end Clinical Lab in a Box (CLIB) solution, which enables clinical sequencing and interpretation in a medical facility. With CLIB, medical practices can gain instant access to these services in-house instead of having to send samples to a centralized Dante laboratory.
Dante Labs can suggest the most suitable genetic analyses for a medical practice’s needs, define their blueprint, and provide the 3D models they need to identify equipment and machinery. A qualified, certified lab can then help the practice offer validated tests, ensure compliance, and provide bioinformatics analysis for various genetic processes and runs.
How Does Dante Labs’ Technology Work?
Dante Labs developed its proprietary platform for a future in which millions of people can access genome sequencing every day. Three pillars make up the multi-services platform:
- Extensa Software, which translates genomic and medical data into personalized, actionable insights for individuals and doctors so that individuals can make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
- Avanti Software, which turns individuals’ DNA into clinical-grade reports. This web-based app accepts any type of DNA data and creates reports that can guide individuals’ critical health decisions.
More About Dante Labs
Under the leadership of Andrea Riposati and Mattia Capulli, Dante Labs offers genomic testing and analysis solutions that can help anyone anywhere improve their lifestyle and protect their well-being. With these solutions, individuals who live in locations as remote as islands in the Pacific Ocean, where there often aren’t any hospitals or clinics, can sequence their genomes.
The company’s sequencing technologies:
- Help individuals across 97 countries understand the possible health risks they could face and how to manage these.
- Empower researchers with the sequencing technologies they need to make pioneering discoveries in the genomics arena.
- Enable medical practices to guide patients to accurate diagnoses and offer effective, supportive treatment plans.
Some of Dante Labs’ genomic clients include the NGS, Harvard University, and Imperial College London.
Dante Labs’ Medical Advisory Board comprises world leaders from the genomics scene. These leaders have multidisciplinary expertise and include geneticists, molecular biochemists, and clinical experts who specialize in nutrigenomics, pharmacogenomics, and oncogenomics, as well as neonatal, prenatal, and pediatric rare diseases.
Since Andrea Riposati and Mattia Capulli launched the company in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2015, Dante Labs has:
- Reduced the price of whole genome sequencing and interpretation (2017).
- Launched the first AI-powered whole-genome report (2019).
- Won the Best-in-Class Covid Analysis Service Provider Award (2020).
- Acquired Cambridge Cancer Genomics to ensure global excellence in precision oncology (2021).
Plus, in 2019, Andrea Riposati and Mattia Capulli won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the EY Italy “Startup” category. This Award celebrated Dante Labs’ efforts in improving accessibility, contributing to local community development, and enhancing Italy’s leadership in the cutting-edge genomics sector.
Dante Labs is compliant with both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The company’s headquarters are in Cambridge, UK, with state-of-the-art laboratories in the U.S., Europe, and Dubai. Since its inception, Dante Labs has amassed steady growth. In fact, the company ranks among the top fastest-growing Italian companies, with a growth rate of +250.46%. Lab24 recently named Dante Labs in the top 5 by revenue growth.
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