Has Sequoia Capital found a Google for genomics?

After emerging from top-secret status in June, Silicon Valley Biosystems (SV Bio) busted loose in the genomics field today with more details about its software-supported platform for enabling doctors to use genomic data in diagnosing patients.

As reported in the spring, SV Bio founder and CEO Dietrich Stephan has scored backing from the iconic venture firm Sequoia Capital for the new company. Sequoia has picked winners such as Google ($GOOG), Apple ($AAPL), Oracle ($ORCL) and LinkedIn ($LNKD). Those companies rose to be dominant players in competitive markets, and it's reasonable to ask whether SV Bio has a shot to do the same in the genomics field.

Today, the Foster City, CA-based startup shed more light on the technology it plans to use to provide physicians with reports that highlight genomic nuances that might explain why a patient is sick. Bio-IT World asked Stephan what makes the platform compelling in the face of competition from companies such as Knome, Omicia, Ingenuity Systems, the GeneInsight-Illumina Network and others.

Stephan broke down the essential differentiators of the system, saying the competitive advantage would be in its simple, accurate and comprehensive approach. That makes sense. Today, doctors might struggle to navigate the plethora of data from a sequencing experiment, let alone make a diagnosis based on the information.

SV Bio has also not taken any chances on accuracy. It's set up two U.S. sequencing centers and one in South Korea to make sure that DNA is decoded precisely before the data are analyzed, according to Bio-IT World.

- here's the release
- get more from Bio-IT World's article