April 1, 2013 (Vol. 33, No. 7)

Premier NGS Service Provider and Your Research Partner

Axeq Technologies, a U.S. based division of Macrogen, is a premium brand for human resequencing that launched in February 2011. We offer publication-level next-generation sequencing data that is powered by the legacy of profound genomic research and service experience of Macrogen.

Macrogen, the parent company of Axeq Technologies, was established in 1997 in South Korea and has been a pioneer in Asian genomic research and business ever since. With its firm foundation of 15 years of Sanger sequencing business, Macrogen initiated next-generation sequencing business as early as 2007 and was involved in prominent achievements in human genome research in collaboration with the Genome Medicine Institute of Seoul National University (SNU-GMI), which include: publication of a Korean individual’s whole-genome sequence by using a combination of BAC clone sequencing and Illumina next-gen sequencing (Nature, 2009); Korean population genomic and transcriptional diversity (Nature Genetics, 2011); cancer biomarker discovery (Genome Research, 2011, 2012), and initiation of drug and new treatment development for specific genetic biomarkers; and currently on-going project of 100,000 human disease genomic analysis and 2,500 Asian Genome.

With its slogan of “Advancing through Genomics”, Macrogen is developing a database of genetic contents of North Eastern Asian populations as well as establishing a network of the hospitals in that region with the ultimate goal of offering personalized clinical information to the patients in terms of disease diagnostics, prognostics, and proper treatments.

Axeq Technologies in the U.S. envisions marching out from the Asian market of Macrogen and taking global leadership in genetic research and service in the years to come.

Markets Served

Current clients of Axeq are mostly researchers in major academic institutions, hospitals, governmental agencies, research organizations, and pharmaceutical industries around the globe centered in the U.S. and Europe right now. Axeq has established a solid partnership and collaboration with a number of cores in major medical institutes and hospitals.

Macrogen has also moved on to clinical and diagnostic business in the U.S., starting as early as second quarter of 2013. We are expecting to serve physicians and clinicians and reach closer to general public services soon.

Capabilities

Axeq shares the technical resources of Macrogen in South Korea, which has been named one of the world’s top-five next-generation sequencing centers and the second largest commercial NGS service provider worldwide. In the third quarter of 2012, Macrogen installed Life Technologies’ Ion Proton and Illumina’s HiSeq2500 in preparation for fast turnaround clinical sequencing service after its addition of a dozen Illumina HiSeq2000 platforms a few months earlier. Our bioinformatics team is composed of tens of full-time experts who have extensive NGS data experience and provide necessary aids: from designing the project to mining the data for publication.

Exome sequencing with various options has been the most popular application for the last two years, and RNA sequencing recently became one of the major NGS applications. At Axeq, we pride ourselves in extremely reliable exome data from DNA derived from various sources including FFPE tissues; and high-quality RNA sequencing data even from a few nanograms of total RNA as starting material as well as “proven” RNA-Seq analysis pipelines and statistic data analysis that has yielded the publication on lung cancer causing fusion gene discovery. Axeq offers start-to-end customized targeted sequencing services from panel probe design to data analysis for finding clinically relevant answers. The recently announced industry-leading promotional price of Axeq is expected to attract those who speculate the markets and hold their investment.

Axeq shares the expertise of Macrogen in high depth human whole-genome resequencing and analysis capabilities including SNV, CNV, and other structural variations. As a participant in the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) for over four years, it has been proven that we are an acknowledged and leading provider of high-quality whole-genome sequencing with fast turnaround.

Since 2011, as a valuable addition to the exome sequencing service with variant calling and annotation, Axeq has been offering Exome Turnkey Discovery service to determine disease-causing variant candidates from a proband and its familial member sequencing data.

Today’s marketing statement of Axeq, “pick the low hanging fruit with best-of-class data and industry leading price”, well depicts its confidence in offering target focused, cost- and time- efficient genomic research services.

Axeq Technologies

9700 Great Seneca Hwy, Rockville MD 20850

Phone: 855.864.AXEQ

Website: www.axeq.com

Date Founded: January 2011

Number of Employees: 17

References:
1. Kim JI, et al. A highly annotated whole-genome sequence of a Korean individual. Nature. 2009 Aug 20; 460(7258):1011-5.
2. Ju YS, et al. Extensive genomic and transcriptional diversity identified through massively parallel DNA and RNA sequencing of eighteen Korean individuals. Nat Genet. 2011 Jul 3;43(8):745-52.
3. Ju YS, et al. A transforming KIF5B and RET gene fusion in lung adenocarcinoma revealed from whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing. Genome Res. 2012 Mar;22(3):436-45.
4. Seo JS, et al. The transcriptional landscape and mutational profile of lung adenocarcinoma. Genome Res. 2012 Nov;22(11):2109-19.
5. Park H, et al. Discovery of common Asian copy number variants using integrated high-resolution array CGH and massively parallel DNA sequencing. Nat Genet. 2010 May;42(5):400-5.

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