Happy New Year! I hope that you all were able to enjoy quality time with loved ones over the holidays. 2023 has come to a close, and we would like to take the time to thank you while looking back on a year full of accomplishments.
In 2023, we celebrated our 25th anniversary. This is a major milestone for any company. We had the privilege of witnessing the unfolding of the NGS space, first on the research side and then on the clinical side over the years. We continue to be excited about advancing precision medicine and building world-class technology. To learn more about our journey, watch the video below.
Another highlight of 2023 was the NIH SBIR Grant 1R43HG013456-01 award, “Pharmacogenomics Workflow: Identifying Biomarkers and Treatment Options.” This grant allows Golden Helix to research pharmacogenetics analytics capabilities as an integrated component of NGS-based genetic testing. The ultimate goal is to move away from “one drug fits all” or “one dose fits all” strategies. Our long-term goal is to support healthcare providers to enhance clinical outcomes, reduce adverse drug reactions, and achieve cost-effective healthcare by integrating pharmacogenomics into routine clinical practice. We appreciate the support of the NIH in this endeavor.
On the product side, we made significant updates to VarSeq as well. In 2023, we released VarSeq 2.5.0, which updated our oncogenicity scoring engine for VSClinical, and we introduced a carrier workflow and multi-sample analysis. You can find more details regarding these updates here.
Lastly, we entered into a partnership with PacBio as a tertiary analysis partner. This partnership is centered on leveraging PacBio Long-Read Hifi Data for disease research. Long-read sequencing has gained considerable popularity among our customers. Our clients are looking for reliable identification of rare variances, improved insights into challenging genomic regions, and top-notch calls for structural variants. We’re excited to collaborate with PacBio to offer a comprehensive solution to the market.
We are looking forward to sharing our ambitious vision for 2024!
Our plan for 2024 is to continue expanding our global customer and partnership base. Besides establishing relationships, such as with PacBio in 2023, we are increasing our distributor network in selected markets.
In the first half of this year, we are planning to release a pharmacogenetics solution that is highly anticipated by our customer base. Beyond that, we expect to develop our VSClinical product line further and make significant improvements to our Warehouse product. Equally important to us is the focus on quality, scalability, and ease of use of our products. In support of that, we have ramped up our customer success outreach, ensuring that users of Golden Helix have the best possible support in reaching their objectives.
Overall, our goal is to support our customers efficiently, reduce healthcare costs, and, most importantly, help improve patient outcomes. On behalf of the Golden Helix Team, I’d like to thank our customers, partners, and collaborators for their loyalty. We look forward to another great year with you in 2024.