As a child, Tony Jose was intolerant to milk and suffered regularly from problems like vomiting, stomach cramps and other reactions till the age of 6 or 7, which even affected his schooling. Doctors couldn’t diagnose the problem and instead treated him with anti-infection medications. Since he was lucky to have just one copy of the mutation that causes Galactosemia, the issue became less severe over time. But, says he, no one knew about the disease and the genetic mutation that caused it 38 years ago. He himself understood it only when he started his career with a specialty diagnostics company in Hyderabad a few years ago. So, for this young science entrepreneur, genetic testing with the highest level of resolution to pick rare genetic disorders is not only a business mission but also a social commitment to help millions of people who either live with such undiagnosed diseases or get the wrong treatment. Clevergene, a deep-tech company offering genomics services for contract research and genetic diagnostics, increased its capacity to over 1 lakh annual tests with the installation of what the company claims is the most advanced DNA sequencer in the world. This puts it in an elite club of organisations around the world that can analyse tens of thousands of human genomes. However, says Tony Jose, the primary intention behind the investment was to scale up the company’s genetic diagnostics portfolio and make genetic diagnosis available to millions of patients. Excerpts of an exclusive interview with Editor CH UNNIKRISHNAN
Why go for such a large-scale capacity expansion now?
This story is from the November 2021 edition of Future Medicine India.
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This story is from the November 2021 edition of Future Medicine India.
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