QIAGEN acquires Ingenuity Systems

QIAGEN announced the acquisition of Ingenuity Systems, Inc., the leading provider of software solutions to efficiently and accurately analyze and interpret the biological meaning of genomic data.

Ingenuity, a privately-held U.S. company based in California's Silicon Valley, has created the market leading expertly curated knowledge system of biomedical information and analysis solutions for the exploration, interpretation and analysis of complex biological systems.

New technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) are now generating more data in a single year than was created in all prior history, making the analysis and interpretation of this extensive and very complex biological data a critical success factor.

The foundation of Ingenuity's product portfolio is the Ingenuity Knowledge Base, a 14-year effort to accurately, manually curate, model and computationally structure the vast amount of biomedical literature, including genomic variations implicated in human disease and thousands of disease models. The Ingenuity Knowledge Base and software applications enable users to accurately interpret the meaning of increasingly large amounts of biological data to better guide scientific experiments and medical treatment decisions.

"The interpretation of biological information is becoming a cornerstone of QIAGEN's ecosystem of Sample & Assay Technologies for molecular testing - both in life sciences research and in diagnostics. We are establishing a leading role in this field and intend to further expand the value proposition and scope of our offering," said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN N.V. "Ingenuity has created unparalleled leadership with its Knowledge Base and interpretation solutions to unlock the value of complex genomic and other biological information. Combining the highest-quality knowledge content with powerful search capabilities and easy-to-use interfaces, the Ingenuity suite provides customers with scientifically and clinically relevant insights into diseases. We are looking forward to expanding the seamless integration of leading biomedical information solutions into our full range of molecular testing solutions, thereby providing our customers a unique experience from sample to interpreted result and recommendations for next steps. Integration of Ingenuity's solutions into a powerful, full-range ecosystem of QIAGEN's molecular testing solutions, such as PCR and next-generation sequencing, promises to offer significant value to QIAGEN customers and shareholders."

"Today we can sequence an entire human genome in just a couple of days for less than a few thousand dollars, but the data analysis can take from months to years. The Ingenuity suite of products enables this rapid and accurate interpretation in a matter of minutes, and this is fundamentally impacting scientific research and the ability to diagnose and manage patient care," said Jake Leschly, President and CEO of Ingenuity Systems. "The Ingenuity mission from day one has been to accelerate scientific discovery and enhance clinical decision-making through a rich understanding of biological systems. As part of QIAGEN, we will offer our biological knowledge content and software in the context of a best-in-class ecosystem of molecular testing solutions and to a greatly expanded range of customers around the world."

Ingenuity's Knowledge Base is built on algorithms that pair all human gene variants with biological interpretations based on known outcomes and findings. These pairings are collected and reviewed by experts (curated) in a standardized way from a wide range of sources including clinical and scientific publications with the support of advanced technology and refined processes. This process and the associated learning algorithms translate sourced data into interoperable and linkable collections of relevant information. The leadership of Ingenuity's products grows out of a long-standing commitment to ensure the highest standards, particularly in the use of expert teams, supported by the most advanced technology.

Source: Qiagen GmbH