Switchpoint Bio Joins the Fingenious® Ecosystem
Switchpoint Bio, a company pioneering scalable epigenomic profiling of the immune system, has entered into a partnership with the Fingenious® Ecosystem. The collaboration opens an opportunity to add deep immune biology to research on nationwide Finnish biobank samples, with the aim of improving the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases.
Disease, exposures and treatment leave measurable marks in the immune system. Switchpoint Bio's platform reads disease-relevant regulatory switches in DNA methylation. From a standard or archived blood sample, it reveals both immune cell composition and the biological state of those cells. Because it works on samples already held in biobanks, it brings mechanistic immune biology to population-scale cohorts and clinical trials.
Few countries can match what Finland offers through Fingenious®. With a single request and a single contract, it gives access to all Finnish public biobanks, including the biobanks of the country's university hospitals and the national Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Biobank, which together hold more than 14 million samples. Each sample can be linked, through unique personal identity codes, to nationwide health registries that follow a person's diagnoses, prescriptions and hospital care over decades.
Companies and research groups that access samples through Fingenious® can add Switchpoint Bio's precision epigenomics and immune profiling to those samples, bringing immune cell composition and state into their existing study design or work directly with Switchpoint Bio to augment their own studies and trials with samples from Finnish biobanks.
"Behind every blood sample in a Finnish biobank is a record of how that person's immune system has responded to disease and treatment. Joining the Fingenious Ecosystem helps bring that biology to the pharma and biotech companies and research groups who rely on these collections, and make that biology visible at scale" says Samuel Myllykangas, Co-Founder and CEO of Switchpoint Bio.
The move reflects a broader shift in biomedical research. Biobank samples have mainly been studied for genetics and clinical markers. Pharma and biotech companies increasingly want to read the dynamic biology they also carry, such as immune state, to understand why patients respond differently and to design better trials.
About the Fingenious® Ecosystem
The Fingenious® Ecosystem is a collaboration network of public, academic and private actors in health and biomedical research in Finland. It works as a national gateway to biobank research on over 14 millions samples by offering access to all Finnish public biobanks, including the biobanks of the country's university hospitals and the national Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Biobank by one request. It helps companies and researchers find partners and services for biobank research, real-world evidence (RWE) projects and clinical trials. The ecosystem is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and coordinated by the Finnish Biobank Cooperative FINBB and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Partners are listed at site.fingenious.fi/en/partners.
About Switchpoint Bio
Switchpoint Bio is pioneering scalable epigenomic profiling of the immune system. By reading disease-relevant regulatory switches in DNA methylation, its platform reveals both immune cell composition and biological state from standard or archived blood samples. This brings deep, mechanistic immune biology to the pharma and biotech companies and research groups running population-scale cohorts and clinical trials.
Contact
Niilo Färkkilä, PhD
Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer
Switchpoint Bio
Helsinki | Boston
www.switchpointbio.com
