AURAGEN, a project France Genomics 2025: Sequencing for everyone in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes (South-East of France)

Original article available here (French)

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has just announced the results of national call for projects France Genomique 2025, to finance the first 2 genomic platforms for diagnostic and therapeutic follow-up.

Two projects were selected, including AURAGEN, a project led by a consortium of hospitals, universities and an industrialist from the Greater Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The Léon Bérard Center is one of the major players in this project and its director-general, Professor Jean-Yves Blay is the scientific director.

« The consortium is pleased that this project has been approved by the State. It is for Auvergne Rhône-Alpes and its 7.8 million inhabitants, and more widely for patients in France an extraordinary opportunity to access precision medicine and the genomic revolution », said Professors Jean- Yves Blay and Damien Sanlaville, respectively scientific director of the project and the sequencing platform.

AURAGEN is supported by a consortium composed of a Healthcare Cooperation Group (GCS AURAGEN) which brings together the 4 University Hospital Centers of the Region (CHU of Clermont-Ferrand, CHU Grenoble Alpes, Hospices Civils de Lyon and CHU de Saint Etienne), as well as 2 Centers for the fight against cancer, (the Jean Perrin Center (Clermont-Ferrand), the Institut of Cancerology of the Loire Lucien-Neuwirth (Saint-Etienne) and the Léon Bérard Center (Lyon).
In addition to the GCS and its institutions, the consortium brings together the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, the University of Grenoble-Alpes, the Jean Monnet University of Saint-Etienne, the University of Clermont Auvergne and the Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne and the Foundation Synergie Lyon Cancer. An industrial partner, the Eurofins Biomnis laboratory, a European leader in specialized medical biology, completes the consortium.

DNA decoding, genomic sequencing: what is it?
High-throughput genomic sequencing allows us to observe the genetic variations that can cause cancers or other rare diseases. AURAGEN will thus explore the genes of more than 21 000 patients over 4 years, the first year of the project being devoted to its implementation.

This program mainly concerns cancer patients for whom novel therapeutic strategies and in particular targeted therapies can be proposed according to the variations identified.

Le lancement aujourd’hui de deux plateformes de séquençage de génomes marque une nouvelle étape vers une médecine personnalisée pour tous. pic.twitter.com/HnYIB1gWNM

— Edouard Philippe (@EPhilippePM) 17 juillet 2017

The analyzes will be prescribed by the doctors of the consortium’s healthcare facilities, treated on the site of the Edouard Herriot Hospital with a Eurofins-Biomnis test. The results can be given in a fortnight.

The data obtained from these analyzes will also be processed, preserved and analyzed thanks to the power of the Grenoble computers and the Léon Berard Center’s bioinformatics platform (Fondation Synergie Lyon Cancer equipment).

In addition to diagnosis and treatment, these DNA decryptions will advance our knowledge by identifying new variations that may lead to new protocols of care and diagnostic tests.

Lastly, in the human and social sciences, the ethical questions and the economic impacts of these techniques will also be analyzed.