Illumina Launches BaseSpace® Apps

Illumina, Inc. has announced the full commercial availability of BaseSpace, the Company's genomics cloud computing and storage platform.

BaseSpace Apps is now out of beta status, and includes a full-fledged e-commerce system that allows customers to quickly and easily purchase Illumina and third-party bioinformatics applications (apps).

BaseSpace e-commerce transactions are based on BaseSpace iCredits, a medium of exchange that can be purchased and spent within BaseSpace.

BaseSpace has rapidly become a valuable platform for bioinformatics app developers. During the beta period, users launched individual BaseSpace apps more than 4,000 times.

Now, with BaseSpace iCredits, developers can easily add e-commerce functionality to their apps, leveraging Illumina's complete payment solution.

"The commercial availability of BaseSpace Apps is an important milestone for both Illumina customers and BaseSpace app developers. For customers, BaseSpace has transitioned into a fully-supported bioinformatics platform; for BaseSpace app developers, BaseSpace now has a comprehensive e-commerce capability that enables them to monetize their efforts," said Alex Dickinson, Illumina's Senior Vice President, Cloud Genomics.

Dickinson continued, "With rapid adoption of BaseSpace by users of Illumina's high-throughput HiSeq® next-generation sequencing systems, and the continued use of the platform by users of Illumina's MiSeq® desktop sequencing systems, the scale of growth potential for BaseSpace Apps is increasing exponentially."

"BaseSpace continues to attract a large number of app developers who can rapidly make their bioinformatics tools available to thousands of Illumina customers," added Jordan Stockton, Illumina's Director of Product Marketing, Computational Biology.

Stockton continued, "BaseSpace is designed to support apps that enable genomics research in diverse markets including cancer, microbiology, and genetic disease."

Through the BaseSpace ecosystem, a diverse collection of new apps are now available for Illumina's MiSeq and HiSeq systems. For example, Elsevier Publishing, the world's leading publisher of scientific and health information, has released a BaseSpace app that enables users to submit data directly into the peer-review publication process.

"We're excited to be working with Illumina to accelerate the scientific publication process," said Bart Wacek, Executive Publisher, Elsevier Life Sciences.

Wacek continued, "Through BaseSpace, scientists can directly submit their data and manuscript to our Genomics Data journal, allowing the data review to be an integral part of the peer-review process."