Clinical genetic testing has a wide range of uses in medicine, including newborn screening for highly penetrant disorders, diagnostic and carrier testing for inherited diseases, prescriptive and symptomatic testing for complex and adult-onset diseases, and pharmacogenetic testing to determine an individual’s drug dosage and response.

To ensure high-quality, advanced, and cost-effective diagnostic testing for all, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, a diagnostic service provider, launched an innovation cell focusing on molecular genomics, super speciality pathology and companion diagnostics.

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Under the innovation cell, the Metropolis is introducing various specialised tests related to pregnancy, cancer, infectious diseases and transplant management one of that is Pregascreen, in which advanced and expensive molecular genetics tests are done at no additional cost for the expectant mother if indicated on routine maternal screening in 1st and 2nd trimester, this reflex approach impacts wider pregnant population by improving accessibility and affordability.

Secondly, Oncomet, the integrated Oncopathology arm of Metropolis, focuses on cancer, supporting patients through Oncomet Patient Support Programs and reflexing expensive molecular tests after expert morphological assessment for tissue and blood cancers; these biomarkers are essential for treatment.

The NextGen BRCA, an NGS-based test launched by innovation cell helps families with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) “an autosomal dominant inherited condition in which the risk of breast cancer (particularly before the age of 50 years) and ovarian cancer is higher than normal”.

Additionally, lung cancer is also the most frequent cause of mortality worldwide, with an estimated 40 per cent of cancer-related deaths. The impact of a molecular signature on patient survival makes it essential to test as many patients as possible by NGS in the quest to detect the actionable mutation, the biomarker for companion diagnostics.

“Metropolis has always been at the forefront in clinical validation of technologies, tests and platforms that directly ensure an accurate timely diagnosis to the patient, including Digital Pathology (Whole Slide Imaging), FDA approved Immunotherapy, targeted therapy biomarkers, liquid biopsy, medical genetics, analytical chemistry, pharmacogenomics, COVID diagnostic & prognostic assays etc. After impacting millions of patients, we want to nurture and expand the scope for Oncology, Prenatal testing, Transplant Immunology, Infectious and Chronic Diseases through Next Generation Sequencing and Artificial Intelligence,” said Dr Kirti Chadha, Chief Scientific Officer, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd.

Commenting on the establishment of Metropolis Innovation Cell, Ms Ameera Shah, Promoter and Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare Limited said, “As the Innovation and R&D arm of the organization, Metropolis Innovation Cell will focus on the pursuit of fundamental scientific discoveries to catalyze optimal patient management. This in turn will fuel the company’s vision and mission of being the most trusted scientific brand and deliver inner health information with compassion, expertise, and honesty to proactively engage with patients and clinicians. To further our long-term goals in these areas, we will continue to invest in strengthening our scientific capabilities and expanding our infrastructure to serve patients across the country.”