QIAGEN and McGill University to collaborate on microbiome research projects to generate evidence-based knowledge for medicine and public health // McGill will serve as a beta-testing site for new QIAGEN microbiome solutions // Partnership strengthens QIAGEN’s efforts in microbiome research while supporting innovation at the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research
Montreal, Canada, and Venlo, the Netherlands, Nov. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QIAGEN (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced a collaboration with the McGill University Centre for Microbiome Research to support microbiome research activities and outcomes.
The three-year partnership will further drive microbiome sciences – the study of a community of microorganisms that can be found living together in any environment, including the human body. It will focus on key areas such as DNA extraction from low microbial biomass samples and anaerobic culturing protocols.
The collaboration is expected to strengthen QIAGEN’s presence in microbiome research across North America which represents a $1.8 billion market. It also will help to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of the scientific community for studying the function of vast microbial ecosystems and how they can be shaped to improve health and mitigate disease. QIAGEN will support the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research with reagents for research across a variety of microbiology and genomic processing workflows and contribute to joint research projects demonstrating the suitability of QIAGEN products for microbiome science. The collaboration will also enable the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research to better train the next generation of scientists and to make microbiome research accessible to a wider range of scientific domains.
“Partnering with McGill University, a leading institution known for its outstanding research and educational programs, underscores our commitment to advancing microbiome research,” said Nitin Sood, Senior Vice President and Head of the Life Sciences Business Area at QIAGEN. “This collaboration will enhance our ability to develop new microbiome solutions based on customer feedback and support the scientific community in uncovering new insights into the microbiome’s impact on health and disease.”
“Microbial communities are central to the functioning of every known ecosystem, including the human body. Yet, we are only scratching the surface in understanding how these abundant, incredibly diverse and dynamic communities impact human health and ecosystems at large. This exciting partnership with QIAGEN will help us provide the tools and approaches to microbiome researchers at McGill University and from all around the province of Quebec to keep pushing the boundaries of our knowledge” said Corinne Maurice, PhD, co-director of the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research and Canada Research Chair in Gut Microbial Interactions.
Microbiome research aims to explore the relationships between microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses, and their hosts. It can help to better understand the microbiome’s impact on health, disease, and microbial ecological processes to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. QIAGEN products will be used in the experimental platforms of the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research, and the Centre will also function as a beta-testing site for the development of new QIAGEN products for microbiome applications and to refine and optimize these for broader applications in the scientific community.
The partnership further drives QIAGEN’s strategy to advance microbiome research. At the beginning of 2024, the company announced a partnership with Penn State University in the United States to create a shared research and education facility for the fast-developing microbiome sciences. It aims to investigate research opportunities that address challenges and research gaps facing the microbiome.
McGill University is one of the top research universities globally. The McGill Centre for Microbiome Research provides McGill investigators and their partners with infrastructure and resources to generate evidence-based knowledge for the benefit of medicine and public health. The Centre aims to integrate and synergize microbiome research activities by offering services through two distinct, yet complementary experimental platforms housed at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (Gnotobiotic Animal Research platform) and downtown campus (Microbial Services Platform).
The Gnotobiotic Animal Research Platform investigates the effects of specific microbial taxa and communities on health and how microbial communities can be modified for improved health. The Microbial Services Platform provides experimental design services and specializes in sample processing for sequencing, as well as culturomics under anaerobic conditions, key steps to assess microbial content and identify key microbes, including pathogens, associated with health and disease.
The McGill Centre for Microbiome Research is dedicated to understanding the complex interactions between microbial communities and their hosts and is committed to make microbiome research accessible to a wide range of scientific domains in Montreal.
QIAGEN’s comprehensive microbiome portfolio encompasses tools for every aspect of the scientific workflow, including reliable sample preparation kits optimized for investigating challenging samples from environmental and human microbiomes. To ensure reproducibility, QIAGEN offers sample preparation automation for standardization and reliability. The extensive range of microbiome solutions also includes downstream processing technologies such as NGS, digital PCR (dPCR), or quantitative PCR (qPCR), all complemented by robust bioinformatics tools for seamless digital analysis.
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of September 30, 2024, QIAGEN employed more than 5,800 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at https://www.qiagen.com.
About McGill University
Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill University is Canada’s top ranked medical doctoral university. McGill is consistently ranked as one of the top universities, both nationally and internationally. It is a world-renowned institution of higher learning with research activities spanning three campuses, 12 faculties, 14 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 39,000 students, including more than 10,400 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,000 international students making up 30% of the student body. Over half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 20% of our students who say French is their mother tongue.
Forward-Looking Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products, timing for launch and development, marketing and/or regulatory approvals, financial and operational outlook, growth and expansion, collaborations, markets, strategy or operating results, including without limitation its expected adjusted net sales and adjusted diluted earnings results, are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations, regulatory processes and dependence on logistics), variability of operating results and allocations between customer classes, the commercial development of markets for our products to customers in academia, pharma, applied testing and molecular diagnostics; changing relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic partners; competition; rapid or unexpected changes in technologies; fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's products (including fluctuations due to general economic conditions, the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets and other factors); our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our products; difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products; the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate and protect our products from competitors' products; market acceptance of QIAGEN's new products and the integration of acquired technologies and businesses; actions of governments, global or regional economic developments, weather or transportation delays, natural disasters, political or public health crises, and its impact on the demand for our products and other aspects of our business, or other force majeure events; as well as the possibility that expected benefits related to recent or pending acquisitions may not materialize as expected; and the other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors in our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F. For further information, please refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
