Centogene announced its partnership in modern molecular genetic testing in India with the Centre of Medical Genetics (CMG) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. The CMG, established at New Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in 1997, is now a leading centre for genetic services in India. Patients are referred for genetic counseling and testing from all over India, as well as from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and UAE.

At the CMG, a group of specialists under the guidance of Dr I C Verma continuously strive for excellence in counseling, management, testing and prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders. They are committed to compassionate patient care, accurate and timely performance of tests, whilst generating new knowledge in the field of genetic disorders in India.

Centogene is a worldwide leader in the field of genetic diagnostic testing for rare hereditary diseases, with a broad test portfolio covering over 2,700 genes, biochemical tests, biomarker and clinical whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing.

The combination of a sophisticated bioinformatics pipeline with clinical genetic expertise results in a very high diagnostic success rate, for example up to 64 per cent with whole exome sequencing. Centogene’ mutation database based on new clinically relevant variants ‘CentoMD' will further help provide doctors and medical researchers alike with detailed, nearly real-time analysis of the overall frequency and clinical significance of the most recently observed genetic variants and mutations, said the company.

According to the company, the scope of its partnership agreement is wide-ranging and encompasses clinical genetic diagnostics, including whole exome/genome sequencing, research into genetic variability and disease associations in the Indian populations. Furthermore, its initiative will also focus on education for clinicians in genetic medicine.

“We can bring the benefits of early and comprehensive diagnosis of rare diseases to the people of India. The Indian population has immense genetic variability, as well as several closely knit communities that show unique disease associations never before studied in detail. This partnership could lead the way to a better understanding of these disease patterns,” said Prof Arndt Rolfs, CEO, Centogene.

Gangaram Hospital will now make available the sophisticated tests of Centogene to Indian patients. There will be sponsored scientific activities at CMG to carry out collaborative research. The first topic that has been taken up for research is the study of congenital deafness by next generation and whole exome sequencing technologies, said Prof I C Verma, director of the Centre of Medical Genetics, Sir Gangaram Hospital.