Africa contributes less than 3 per cent of the world’s genetic materials in pharmaceutical research. This is strange because the genetic pool of people in Africa is the most diverse and unique of any human population.
For this reason, 54Gene, an African genomics startup founded in 2019, set out to close this gap. The startup has been so successful that it has raised $45 million from several investors and is now at the forefront of global efforts to bring genetics to the masses.
African Genomics Innovation 54 Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been added to Gene’s infrastructure as part of the company’s plan to keep its promise to bring precision medicine to Africa and the rest of the world by eliminating the geographical divide in genomics data.
Currently, some regions of the world (often industrialized countries) have extensive sequenced genomics databases, while other regions (primarily developing countries and particularly the African continent) have significantly fewer datasets. Francis Osifo, vice president of 54Gene, says closing this information gap is crucial to making sure that scientific discoveries are shared with and valuable to people everywhere as genomics expands in its scientific applications (most recently in understanding the SARS-CoV-2 virus).
What to expect from 54Gene new Development
This inequality is what 54Gene is aiming to fix with its AWS-backed health tech platform. The company is building different databases to help improve diagnosis and treatment in Africa and other places and to help scientists progress in the field of genomics.
Due to 54Gene’s use of AWS technologies, there will soon be a rise in the number of different genomics studies in Africa.
Read also: 54gene Completes First Research Publication on Nigerians
According to Osifo, “a bottleneck effect was created when modern humans originating from Africa wandered and explored the globe, leaving behind large genetic diversity on the African continent.” As a result, only about 3% of the genetic data used in studies comes from African populations.
We are paving the way by introducing the African genome into scientific studies. To do this, we are reimagining a world in which everyone has access to precision medicine, and people live longer.
An Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive said, “AWS has substantial experience in healthcare and medical research around the world, and our technology has powered some incredible innovations in this space in recent years.” This statement was made by Robin Njiru, AWS’s business lead for East and West Africa. We consider 54Gene the next step in this groundbreaking, future-oriented medical research line. An entire continent without data on this is a significant obstacle to ensuring that any breakthroughs are applicable in an African setting, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Expanding our assistance to businesses that help close these chasms and promote ideas important to Africa and its people is a priority at AWS.
The genomic, clinical, and phenotypic data on 54Gene’s Genomics Infrastructure & Insights Ecosystem (GENIISYSTM) platform has been meticulously curated to allow for the extraction of insights that have been important in the development of groundbreaking new treatments and diagnostics. Assets developed and derived from GENIISYSTM are intended to advance global healthcare.
Even though 54Gene was on the cutting edge of this technology, it had trouble finding a reliable cloud provider that would consider the company’s ecosystem and help it grow at every stage.
Ghanaian health tech startup, mPharma buys majority stake in Nigeria’s HealthPlus
AWS to improve genomics research in Africa
54Gene is using AWS technology to improve the diversity of genomics research in Africa. This could have a significant effect on the field as a whole.
“AWS is highly configurable with robust support,” says Osifo. Having their services available 24/7 is a significant benefit. And the greatest benefit is that any issue can be resolved.
Within three weeks of finishing the architecture, AWS services were live, allowing 54Gene to implement, deploy, and manage all of their solutions (both internal and external). This has resulted in immediate cost savings and greater productivity throughout the firm without disrupting the customer experience. Osifo says that now is the time for 54Gene to make their most effective products and ensure they will be around for a long time.
When it comes to running our firm, AWS is ideal. It provides solutions to our most pressing problems while providing the foundation, assistance, and technical chops we’ll need to expand. As a result of our investment in state-of-the-art technical infrastructure and support, we can provide our customers with a consistently high-quality, scalable, and dependable product experience. The goal is for future advances in genomic science to consider Africa and its people.
Among the set of operational services are FSX, ECR, Fargate, RDS, Aurora, MySQL, EC2, Route 53, S3, ACM, VPC, IAM, SES, WAF, Cognito, GuardDuty, Lambda, MSK, Secrets Manager, Security Hub, SQS, SNS, KMS, Amplify, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and the rest of the AWS suite.