US-based Illumina Inc., a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, has announced that it will establish a Global Capability Centre in Bengaluru, India, as an investment to expand its technology workforce in support of a global customer base.

India is on its way to becoming the world’s third largest economy by 2030 and it continues to confront public health issues such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases. It is estimated that up to 96 million people in India have a rare disease, and one in nine people in India are likely to develop cancer in their lifetime. Expanding access to genomics in India will help unlock opportunities for advancing healthcare and combating the effects of climate change.

Bengaluru joins Singapore; Cambridge, England; Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Shanghai; Madison, Wisconsin; Hayward, California; and San Diego as Illumina Global Capability Centres. As part of this, Illumina aims to hire 100 technology professionals in India, including software engineers, IT hardware and network engineers, and system analysts in 2024 and 200 more by the end of 2025.

Last year, Illumina opened a new office and state-of-the-art genomics lab – known as an Illumina Solutions Centre in Bengaluru. The facility features a fully equipped laboratory with the latest next-generation sequencing technologies.

The Illumina India Genomics Summit held on August 30 in Bengaluru, where the investment announcement was made, is Illumina India’s flagship event. It welcomed a variety of genomics experts, clinicians, researchers, and scientists to exchange their experience and knowledge around the latest updates in genomics, encompassing clinical and translational research.

In December 2023, Illumina launched the Global Health Access Initiative to better equip countries to perform pathogen sequencing locally. This programme addresses key international logistics and supply chain challenges, strengthens health systems, enables better preparedness, and empowers countries to manage their own priority health threats.