Why Regeneron is giving away sequencing “for free”, with Alison Fenney

As academic researchers experience a worsening funding crunch and pharma companies are increasingly hungry for large, high-quality data sets, groups like the Regeneron Genetics Center are pitching a win-win partnership: free genetic sequencing for research cohorts in exchange for access to the data.

At LSX last month in Boston, editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock spoke with Alison Fenney, executive director of strategic partnerships and business operations at Regeneron Genetics Center, about this increasingly popular collaboration model.

Fenney explains how her organisation can sequence cohorts ranging from hundreds to millions of patients, and how they use that data internally for R&D for target identification and verification – then publish as much as they can publicly.

They also discuss the importance – and challenges – of good data stewardship and privacy protection and the exciting burgeoning field of proteomics. Check out the full video for more insights into this new avenue of industry-academic collaboration.