Today, Illumina announced a new software product called the BioInsight Platform, which is not to be confused with BioInsight, the name of the business segment created a year ago that oversees its data analysis and data generation products and programs. Or maybe it is?
“BioInsight was built on an incredible history of data, software, and AI innovation that Illumina has delivered in the industry for more than a decade,” Rami Mehio, senior VP and general manager of BioInsight at Illumina, said in a statement. “Now, BioInsight is accelerating our pace of innovation, and with the BioInsight Platform we are bringing customers one simple place to access the full breadth of our offerings across software, AI, and data.”
The BioInsight Platform is a one-stop shop for access to the gamut of Illumina’s digital products, from DRAGEN analysis pipelines to AI models like SpliceAI2, an Oct. 8 update to model that predicts how genetic variants disrupt RNA splicing, trained on a dataset 100 times larger than the original SpliceAI.
One of the biggest changes customers might see is a switch to usage-based pricing, rather than subscription-based pricing. For now, $1 gets you one BioInsight Credit, which can be used for executing pipelines, storing files, and using “workspaces.” For instance, Standard storage runs 22.5 credits/dollars per terabyte per month. DRAGEN sequencing analysis has its own pricing: a whole genome could cost anywhere from 10 to 15 credits, depending on the level of analysis; a large panel of 201 or more genes would cost 4 credits.
As usual with Illumina, volume discounts will be available for larger organizations with one-, three-, and five-year commitments. In some plans with monthly credit allotments, credits expire at the end of each month.
BioInsight also charges users for customer support, a sort of tax on usage. Support beyond a bare minimum (5 day email response, technical documentation, etc.) comes with a 10 percent surcharge on the first 40,000 credits and lower marginal rates in higher brackets: 5 percent between 40,000 and 100,000 credits, and 3 percent above 100,000.
Whether Illumina customers will be forced to access data products through the BioInsight Platform isn’t clear. Illumina website said that existing subscription agreements will be honored through their end date, which suggests to me that it will eventually be the only way into Illumina’s data world; however, the company did not immediately respond to questions about the launch.
Ion Genomics News
In case you missed it, for last week’s podcast episode I spoke with genomics commentator Alex Dickinson about how Grail’s pursuit of FDA approval is helping focus conversations about the test’s potential consequences for patients and the US healthcare system.
What is Grail’s Galleri If It Can’t Be Called ‘Early?’ With Alex Dickinson
Grail’s Galleri blood-based cancer detection test appears headed towards approval by the FDA after it passed a trio of votes from an advisory committee Sept. 23. However, a closer look at the votes — especially the split vote on the question of efficacy — and the debate that preceded it revealed just how much remains unsettled about what the test achiev…
This Friday, look out for a conversation about epigenetics, especially methylation, and new ideas about its role in aging with Andrew Adey, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University. We also discuss some training tips for endurance athletes ahead of his Ironman triathlon race this month.
Other Genomics News
Illumina Sets Up Commercial Paper Program to Borrow Up to $1B
Illumina has established an unsecured commercial paper program under which it can issue short-term notes totaling up to $1 billion outstanding at any time, according to an Oct. 8 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
FDA Grants Breakthrough Status for Natera's Blood-Based Test for Multiple Cancers
The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device designation to a new blood-based test from Natera that analyzes cell-free DNA to screen for multiple cancers.
Myriad Genetics, Sophia Genetics Team Up Around Prostate Cancer HRD Biomarker
Myriad Genetics and Sophia Genetics have announced a collaboration to advance a prostate cancer-specific genomic instability score, known as PrGIS, to support precision oncology approaches with AstraZeneca.
Qiagen has added AI tools to its bioinformatics lineup, led by IPA Investigator and the Qiagen Discovery Platform.
IPA Investigator enables researchers to ask questions about their data in natural language, and the tool identifies relevant biological relationships, recommends analyses and runs them within IPA. In a test at Norway’s University of Bergen using datasets with deliberately misleading sample comparisons, researcher Simona Chera said in a statement that the tool “identified the problem, cautioned us against overinterpreting the results and suggested a better experimental design.”
The Discovery Platform, combines AI with the company’s biomedical knowledge base and molecular data to help researchers identify potential drug targets and biomarkers, generate hypotheses, and automate parts of the discovery process. Pricing, availability, and performance data were not disclosed for either product.
Delve Bio, a startup offering metagenomic next-generation sequencing-based (mNGS) tests for infectious disease, has launched Delve Detect Plasma, a blood-based test that expands its menu beyond cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
The laboratory developed test analyzes both DNA and RNA to identify pathogens against the company’s database of thousands of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Results are available the day after the sample is received.
“The advantage of metagenomic sequencing is that we don’t have to know exactly what we’re looking for before we start testing,” Charles Chiu, Delve cofounder and professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “With Delve Detect Plasma, critically ill patients with systemic infections can now be tested with our mNGS platform through a simple blood draw.”
The company said it will present new clinical data on the test at the IDWeek 2026 conference later this month.
My Omics Reading List
Olson, et al. “The Genome In A Bottle HG002 assembly-based variant benchmark set enables comprehensive benchmarking of small and structural variants.” bioRxiv. Oct. 1, 2026.
Compared to the v4.2.1 benchmark genome, the Genome In a Bottle HG002 v5.0q covers approximately 200 megabases more of the genome and includes 18 percent more small variants and approximately three times more structural variants. Many of the new variants are in challenging, repetitive regions, such as segmental duplications, tandem repeats, and homopolymers, that mapping-based benchmarks have had to exclude.
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Mariner et al. “Epigenetic aging and transposon dysregulation reflect size-related lifespan compression in dogs.” Science. Oct. 8, 2026.
“Using 1,640 methylomes from 894 dogs, we developed an epigenetic clock that predicted mortality and demonstrated that epigenetic aging is fastest early in life,” the authors wrote. “We found that larger and male dogs, which are shorter lived, exhibit accelerated molecular aging. Distinct epigenetic architectures mediated these effects: Sex-dependent methylation changes were concentrated on the X chromosome, whereas size-associated methylation was especially pronounced at transposable elements (TEs).”
Elsewhere on the Internet
From LinkedIn:
The UCSF Center for Advanced Technology has installed the Roche AXELIOS 1 sequencer. We’re excited to begin running the system for our users and see what they can do with the synergy Roche has been able to achieve by combining technologies from Genia and Stratos. Please reach out if you’re interested in having samples run. Thanks to our local and global teams for a smooth install and training process!