Wageningen, The Netherlands
October 29, 2013

Today, two highly innovative companies, KeyGene and GENALICE announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership. KeyGene purchased a license of GENALICE MAP, a groundbreaking new sequence-mapping tool to accelerate and improve DNA research.

KeyGene is an Agro-industrial Biotech company focusing on genomic research and technology development to accelerate crop improvement. Using cutting edge molecular genetic technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, KeyGene has a leading and innovative role in this market. “The breakthrough software of GENALICE MAP is a leap forward in improving our analysis pipeline and in staying ahead of competition. We tested, validated and now implemented MAP, as it immediately offers us major competitive advantages on speed and accuracy in DNA analysis. In addition, the strategic
partnership with GENALICE allows us to influence new functionalities within the product that will benefit our business,” comments Arjen van Tunen, CEO of KeyGene.

GENALICE is a young and innovative Dutch software company. In a worldwide online launching event it will present its first product to all DNA researchers in the world on 12/12 later this year. “This first commercial deal, even before the official launch of our product, shows the quality of our product and the need for GENALICE MAP in the field of DNA data processing.” says Hans Karten, CTO of GENALICE.

Jos Lunenberg, CEO of GENALICE, further comments: “We are extremely pleased with the partnership with KeyGene. It clearly shows that GENALICE MAP is highly welcomed in the field of plant genomics. Plant DNA is often far more complex than human DNA. This demonstrates that we are also well positioned to deal with complex variations in DNA, which is found in complex diseases such as cancer.

KeyGene is a privately owned, innovative molecular genetics Ag Biotech company with a primary focus on the improvement of 6F (Food, Feed, Fiber, Fuel, Flowers and Fun) crops. KeyGene’s passion is a Green Gene Revolution approach to explore and exploit natural genetic variation in vegetable and other 6F crops. KeyGene delivers sustainable responses to the world’s needs for yield stability & quality of vegetable and field crops. It supports its strategic partners with cutting edge breeding technologies and plant-based trait platforms to meet their needs. KeyGene performs strategic and applied research with more than 135 employees from all over the world, with state of the art facilities and equipment. KeyGene has its headquarters in Wageningen, The Netherlands, a subsidiary in Rockville, USA and a Joint Lab with the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences in Shanghai, China.

GENALICE is a privately owned, young, innovative software company, based in the Netherlands. Its mission is to boost research into complex DNA-related diseases, such as cancer. Through the design and development of groundbreaking software solutions GENALICE wants to make an important contribution to improved diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. One of these software solutions, GENALICE MAP, is a so-called short read alignment tool. MAP can process raw Next-Generation Sequencing data ultra-fast, cost-effectively and reliably into a small, easy manageable, file for low-cost storage or further analysis. Its second product under development, GENALICE LINK, is a unique open platform for processing, integrating and correlating biomedical big data. On a standard dual processor hardware configuration all the biomedical data of up to 150,000 patients can be analyzed within seconds. GENALICE combines the robustness of an Oracle database with the performance and flexibility of customized software. The technologies used are generally applicable not only in the field of bioinformatics, but in all areas where reducing the data footprint and ultra-fast interpretation, transformation and correlation of data from different sources is important.

Website: http://www.genalice.com/

Published: October 29, 2013