CIO Bulletin

Leading the Genomic Revolution with VarSeq Suite, Revolutionizing Precision Medicine, and Envisioning a Path for Healthier Tomorrow: Golden Helix Inc

Since its establishment in 1998, Golden Helix has led the charge in revolutionizing genomic medicine, making an enduring impact on life science research and translational medicine. With a global reach, the company empowers healthcare professionals and scientists worldwide, advancing precision medicine and enhancing health outcomes.

Nestled in Bozeman, Montana, Golden Helix not only pioneers cutting-edge bioinformatics solutions but also nurtures a vibrant community. Its innovations enable scientists and healthcare professionals to glean meaningful insights from the expanding realm of genomic data, whether from microarrays or next-generation sequencing.

The global impact of Golden Helix is evident as hundreds of top pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic research organizations leverage its products and services. These contributions not only advance understanding of the genetic foundations of diseases but also play a pivotal role in improving drug efficacy, ensuring safety, developing genomic diagnostics, and driving the pursuit of personalized medicine.

Dr. Andreas Scherer, CEO of Golden Helix Inc, spoke exclusively to CIO Bulletin about how his company stands as a beacon of excellence, embodying a dedication to improving human health, fostering a dynamic work culture, encouraging personal development, and upholding unwavering values.

Interview Highlights

Q. Golden Helix Inc has been revolutionizing genomic medicine since 1998. Can you share some key milestones in the company's founding journey that have shaped its commitment to advancing precision medicine?

We have been in the business for over twenty-five years, focusing initially on capabilities supporting Genome-Wide Association studies. Researchers examined biomarkers and their associations with traits and diseases in humans, animals, and plants. For these studies, we provide robust analytics paired with visualization capabilities, eliminating the need for programming skills.

In the last decade, our focus has shifted to the clinical space, serving hospital labs, commercial testing labs, and translational research labs. In this domain, the emphasis is on running testing pipelines for diagnosing cancer and hereditary diseases. Prenatal testing and, as of this quarter, pharmacogenetics testing are also supported. The ultimate outcome typically involves a clinical report handed over to a physician, informing their treatment plans.

Q. Can you provide a comprehensive overview of Golden Helix Inc.'s range of products and services, highlighting the standout features that set them apart from others in the market?

The VarSeq Suite incorporates robust filtering and annotation capabilities through our VarSeq product. VSClinical enables the clinical interpretation of variants based on the ACMG (American College of Medical Genetics) guidelines for hereditary diseases and the interpretation of somatic variants based on the AMP (Association of Molecular Pathology) guidelines. Our VS-CNV product empowers customers to analyze Copy Number Variants and other structural variants, such as fusions, inversions, and translocations. Alongside VSPipeline and VSWarehouse, we offer powerful enterprise capabilities, providing automation and data warehousing functionality. In the current fiscal quarter, we are set to launch a new product, VSPGx, supporting pharmacogenetics workflows designed to determine if certain drugs can be recommended to a patient or help establish dosage.

Customers choose us for several reasons, with the most significant being our support for a wide range of use cases, as mentioned earlier. Some customers primarily focus on hereditary diseases, while others concentrate on cancer. Instead of dealing with two or more vendors, they can address all these needs seamlessly with Golden Helix.

Secondly, our software scales very well. We can support the analysis of small gene panels, clinical exomes, and whole genomes with ease. Today’s labs need to have the ability to offer tests along the entire spectrum. In addition, our platform can support labs with vastly different throughput capabilities. Whether for small start-up labs, regional testing labs, or large-scale nationwide sequencing projects, VarSeq enables the efficient processing and analysis of large datasets, ensuring timely and accurate results.

Thirdly, we can offer our solution at attractive fixed annual prices. This allows our customers to ramp up their throughput without incurring more costs, hence increasing their gross margins. This is a major differentiation of ours in the marketplace.

Q. Golden Helix strives to provide innovative software for healthcare professionals and scientists. How does your team ensure that the software tools meet the diverse needs of professionals at different levels, from beginners to experts?

For clarity purposes, the users of our software are highly trained healthcare professionals with advanced degrees and a profound understanding of the field of precision medicine and genomics. We consistently find ourselves impressed by the knowledge and deep understanding that our customers display while we have the pleasure of working with them. To support their work in the most efficient way, we have established a robust training method. We can systematically transfer the required domain and tool knowledge on how to use our software from our Field Application Scientists to our customers. Our training method is not only repeatable but also transferable. In other words, we can enable our customers to establish a train-the-trainer model that allows them to replicate expert knowledge within their organizations.

Q. Given the dynamic nature of the healthcare and genomics industries, what strategies does Golden Helix have in place to proactively address emerging challenges and stay at the forefront of innovation?

The company has garnered a large following, with over 400 organizations, including hospitals, testing labs, research and government organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. We engage in a continuous dialogue with our customers, assisting them with their current needs and gaining insights into future directions. This ongoing interaction provides us with a unique perspective that we can translate into improvements for our existing products or the development of new ones.

A notable example is our latest product, VSPGx. In response to our customers' insights and the identified need for advanced pharmacogenetics capabilities, we collaborated with the NIH in the USA on a research project awarded last year. This collaboration has resulted in our newest product, addressing the pharmacogenetics needs of our customers. We are committed to continuous improvement, iterating and expanding this product based on both our internal insights and the valuable feedback received from the marketplace.

Q. What are the core values that guide the company, and how do they contribute to the overall success and reputation of Golden Helix in the bioinformatics industry?

In essence, our approach centers on the principle of ownership. Every employee has access to equity incentives as an integral component of the overall compensation system. When coupled with a compelling vision and purpose in the genomics field, this framework cultivates a team of highly skilled and motivated professionals singularly dedicated to the success of our customers. The outcome is a culture of innovation and financial success that inherently generates value for our shareholders.

Q. Looking ahead, what is Golden Helix's vision for the future in terms of furthering the impact on genomic medicine and contributing to the evolution of healthcare?

Throughout our journey, we've covered significant ground, perhaps even more than expected. We foresee an escalating regulatory oversight in our industry, particularly within the Precision Medicine field. Consequently, we are proactively preparing our company for this aspect, ensuring our in-house processes are both repeatable and well-documented. This commitment has earned us certification for ISO 13485, a crucial international quality standard that holds significance for US and international labs moving forward. Additionally, as our field transitions into a phase of increased volume and the integration of genomics into mainstream medicine, we recognize the need for robust, highly scalable, and interoperable enterprise capabilities. Golden Helix is poised and prepared for the forthcoming challenges.

About | Dr. Andreas Scherer

Dr. Andreas Scherer serves as the CEO of Golden Helix, leading the company in delivering cutting-edge bioinformatics solutions that have spearheaded advancements in life science research and translational medicine for over a quarter century. Golden Helix's notable growth is acknowledged by its inclusion in the prestigious Inc 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US. Additionally, Dr. Scherer holds the position of Managing Partner at Salto Partners, Inc., a distinguished management consulting firm based in Nevada.

Bringing a wealth of expertise, Dr. Scherer has a proven track record in effectively managing growth and navigating complex turnaround situations. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Hagen, Germany, and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Dortmund, Germany. Dr. Scherer is a prolific author with over 20 international publications and books covering diverse topics such as project management, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. His latest book, “Be Fast Or Be Gone”, not only earned recognition as a prizewinner in the 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Awards but also achieved finalist status in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.