Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5

December 2019/January 2020 Report
Hackers target LifeLabs medical Database in B.C and Ontario – December 27, 2019https://www.vicnews.com/news/hackers-target-lifelabs-medical-database-in-b-c-ontario/- On November 1, 2019- The database of Canada’s largest providers of medical lab testingservices, LifeLabs, was targeted by a cyberattack- Extent of the data break was not revealed but it potentially affected 15 million customers
o Database included information such as names, address, email, customer login andpasswords, healthcare numbers and lab test results- The company has signed on 5 hospitals and clinics that will collaborate to build aninfrastructure to collect and share high-quality, patient-consented data that can be used toprovide precision care to cancer patients- The company is targeting the fact that to date, no effort has successfully unified academic
and community practices to work together in collecting the quantity of data necessary toadvance precision oncology
o Taproot Health’s data-as-a-service enterprise helps to unite all oncologystakeholders in creating a nationwide oncology database comprised of patientconsented, high-quality prospective data that meets rigorous scientific standards
Deep Genomics Receives a $40M Series B round – January 7, 2020
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/deep-genomics-nabs-40m-round-doubles-downai-and-wilson-disease-work- Canadian drug development company Deep Genomics received a $40 million series
B roundo Led by Future Ventures alongside Amplitude Ventures, Khosla Ventures,
Magnetic Ventures, and True Ventures- Deep Genomics is a biotech and drug development company that is using AI to help
better understand and create new drug targets and design new drugs and animalmodels- They state that 70% of their research projects have led to therapeutic leads andprograms have been taken from target discovery to drug candidate in less than ayear- Part of the $40M funding will go towards pushing 2 early-stage programs to IND thisyear- Deep Genomics will also be gathering up phase ½ data for its Wilson diseasecandidate (a rare and potentially fatal genetic disorder characterized by excess
copper stored in various body tissues)- Deep Genomics uses more than 20 machine learning systems to screen diseasecausing mutations in search of new drug targets

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ON
M4V 1N5o They have built a system that within 2 hours, can scan over 200,000
pathogenic patient mutations and automatically identify potential drug
targets
Scientists combine AI with biology to create the world’s first “living robots” – January
21, 2020
https://www.ecowatch.com/xenobot-ai-biology-2644880026.html- A research team of roboticists and scientists announced how they have they havecreated a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells → a living, programmableorganismo They are completely organic and made of living tissue- Xenobots are less than 1mm long and made of 500-1000 living cells
o They have various simple shapes (some with squat “legs”)
o They can propel themselves in linear or circular directionso They can join together to act collectively and move small objects
o They can live up to 10 days using their own cellular energy- To make this, the research team used a supercomputer to test thousands of random
designs of simple living thingso The computer was programmed with an AI “evolutionary algorithm” topredict which organisms would likely display useful taskso Scientists them replicated virtual models which they had created with frog
skin or heart cells joined using microsurgery tools
o The heart cells contract and relax, giving the organisms motion- Xenobots are like robots because they can configure into different forms and shapes
and “programmed” to targets certain objects which they unwittingly seek
- They can also repair themselves after being damaged
Possible medical uses:- Xenobots designed with carefully shaped “pouches” may be able to carry drugs into
human bodies- Future versions may be built from a patient’s own cells to repair tissue or target
cancers- They could also help us gain a deeper understanding of living and robotic systems
Legal and ethical concerns:- They could be used for malevolent purposes- Some argue, artificially making living things is unnatural and like you are “playingGod”- Risk of more advanced xenobots that live longer and reproduce could out-compete
other species

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5

Genesis Therapeutics raises $4.1M in Seed Funding – Nov 21, 2019
- Genesis Therapeutics – a biotech company harnessing breakthrough AI-technology
to optimize drug discovery and development- The 4.1M seed funding as led by Andreessen Horowitz and Felicis Ventures as amajor investor- The company aims to discover and develop innovative small molecule drugcandidates for the treatment of patients with severe and debilitating disorders- The company originated in Pande Lab at Stanford- Principal founder and CEO is Evan Feinberg- Co-founder: Ben Sklaroff- Backed by: Vijay Pande. Ph.D.
- The company actively partners with biopharmaceutical companies to launch selectnovel therapies
Sanofi buys cancer-focused biotech – December 10, 2019https://www.ft.com/content/cd45a262-1a6e-11ea-97df-cc63de1d73f4- Sanofi, the French drugmaker, is make a strategic shift to intensify its focus on key
growth areas such as oncology, rare diseases and immunology and stop research
into diabetes and cardiovascular diseaseo Sanofi has been seeking to strengthen its portfolio following the loss ofpatent protection on key diabetes treatments and political pressure in the US
over the cost of insulin- Chief executive Paul Hudson announced that its consumer healthcare division will
become a standalone business- The company signalled this shift when they announced that it was buying
Californian biotech Synthorx for $2.5B- The US-headquartered Merck also stated that they would acquire another cancerfocused biotech, ArQule for $2.7B
o Because of its advances in precision medicine for cancer, including a leukemia
drug in the early stages of clinical developmento Cash deal of $20 a share → 107% premium to ArQule’s closing price- Sanofi will acquire all of Synthorax’s outstanding shares for $68 a share in cash – a172% premium to Synthorx’s closing price on Friday-Astellas Pharma/ADR announced they will be buying Audentes Therapeutics Inc for$60 per share – total equity value of $3B

Is Cloud Computing the Answer to Genomics’ Big Data Problem?
- In 2018 alone, over 40% of FDA-approved drugs had the capacity for being
personalized to patients, largely based on genomics data

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave WToronto, ONM4V 1N5------The ever-increasing use of genomics has led to plummeting costs of sequencing agenome
o The 1st sequence genome (as part of the Human Genome Project) cost 2.4B
euros and took around 13 years to completeo Today, you can get your genome sequenced in less than a day for under900euroes
According to the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, more than 100 million
genomes will have been sequenced in a healthcare setting by 2025
o Most of these will have been sequenced as part of large-scale genomic
projects stemming from 1) big pharma and 2) national population genomics
initiatives
1 whole human genome sequence produces approximately 200 gigabytes of raw
data
The massive amount of data can partially be managed through data compression
technologies (with companies such as Petagene) but that doesn’t solve the wholeproblem
Genomics data analysis however normally generates an additional 1—gigabytes ofdata per genome for downstream analysis, and requires massive computing power
supported by large computer clusters → this is still economically unfeasible for themajority of companies and institutions (this requires high-performance computers)
Cloud computing has emerged as a viable way to analyze large datasets quickly,
without having to worry about maintaining and upgrading serverso A pay-as-you-go model allowing you to rent computational power andstorageo This is especially helpful for small life science companies
Univa is the industrial leader in workload scheduling in the cloud and HPC
o They say that 90% of organizations requiring high performance computing
capacity has moved, or are looking into making, to the cloudo Sano Genetics is a startup based in Cambridge that carries out large data
analyses for researchers using services in the cloudON the cloud, data can be downloaded directly to the cloud and removed once theanalyses are finished
Cloud resources are allocated in virtualized slices called “instances”
o Each instance hardware and software is pre-configured according to theuser’s demand, ensuring reproducibilityMedley Genomics (a US-based Startup) has moved all company operations to thecloud in 2019 in a partnership with London-based Lifebit
The cloud allows seamless collaboration and reproducibility – which are essential
for research and drug discovery

Limitations preventing widespread adoption of the cloud by the field of drug discovery

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5-Long-term cloud storage is more expensive than the HPC counterpart- cloud
solutions charge per month per gigabyte
Computations cost of a single analysis is five times more expensive compared to anHPC solution in many scenarioso It is expected that as cloud technologies continue to progress and the market
becomes more competitive, prices will come downo While cloud providers have developed protocols to ensure the data is safe,
some risks still exist▪ Privacy remains the main obstacle for pharmaceutical companies tofully embrace the cloudCurrent players in the cloud genomics space- 86% of cloud customers rely on 3 main providers: AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft)- Other companies like London-based Lifebit’s technology allows users to run any
bioinformatics analyses through any cloud provider with a user-friendly interface
Mayo Clinic to Sequence Genomic Data from 100K Participants
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/mayo-clinic-to-sequence-genomic-data-from-100kparticipants- Mayo Clinic is sequencing genomic data from 100,000 consented participants inpartnership with Helix, a population genomic companyo Together, they will create a library of genomic data to improve patient care
- They plan to use Helix’s clinical Exome+ sequencing technology to reads all 20,000
genes that code for proteins, as well as hundreds of thousands of regions outside theprotein-coding regions that are known to be informative and impactful to a person’shealtho This DNA test uses next generation sequencing technology to screen theexome for genetic variants that can significantly increase the risk of disease- Participants’ DNA will undergo Exome+ sequencing with results returned over timeto the participants, as well as their Mayo Clinic providero This will allow Mayo to evaluate the benefits of Exome+ sequencing and theshort- and long-term effects of health-related outcomes, healthcare
utilization, and physician acceptance- This collaboration will also support research at the Mayo Clinic Center for
Individualized Medicine
Human Genome Stuck in 5700-year old “Chewing Gum” Sequenced
https://www.genengnews.com/news/human-genome-stuck-in-5700-year-old-chewinggum-sequenced/- A 5700 year old birch pitch was recently found in Lolland, Denmark

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ON
M4V 1N5--The DNA in this birch pitch has now been sequenced to yield a complete humangenome
o The genome was assembled by scientists based at the University ofCopenhageno It belonged to a female who likely had dark skin, dark brown hair, blue eyes,
and genetically more closely related to western hunter-gatherers frommainland Europe than those from central Scandinavia
This marks the first time that an entire ancient human genome has been extracted
from anything other than human bones

Researchers finally sequence Giant Squid’s Entire Genome
https://futurism.com/the-byte/researchers-sequence-giant-squid-genome
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-mysterious-legendary-giant-squid-genome.html- January 16th, 2020---

For the first time, scientists at the University of Copenhagen and Marine Biological
Laboratory researchers have sequenced the entire genetic code of a giant squid
They found several oddities in the giant squid’s DNA – genes that are rarely found inother invertebrateso Researchers spotted over 100 genes in the giant squid’s genome that aren’t
typically found in invertebrates – 1 linked to brain development which may
help to explain why giant squid have vastly more complex brains than otherinvertebrates
o They also identified more than 100 genes in the protocadherin family –typically not found in abundance in invertebrates▪ These are thought to be important in wiring up a complicated brain
correctly
The giant squid’s full genome was just about 90% (2.7 billion DNA base pairs) thesize of the human genetic code
In terms of their genes, they look a lot like other animals → this means they can use
this to study more about humans
Important developmental genes in almost all animals were present in single copies
only in the giant squid genomeo This means the giant squid did not get so big through whole-genome
duplication
They also analyzed a gene family that is so far, unique to cephalopods, calledreflectinso Reflectins encode a protein that is involved in making iridescence