Roche Diagnostics names Australia’s first site for next-gen sequencing platform

The Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) has secured Australia’s first next-generation sequencing system from Roche Diagnostics.

The deployment was announced at the Australasian Genomic Technologies Association (AGTA) 2026 conference in Sydney, as Roche moves to establish its sequencing platform in a market long dominated by Illumina, a company it attempted to acquire in 2012.

“We’re excited that AGRF will be the first site in Australia to have the AXELIOS 1 system, opening up new opportunities to explore what this technology can bring to genomics and to the research community,” said AGRF Chief Scientific Officer, Cath Moore.

The platform’s arrival in Australia also comes as genomic research increasingly confronts a longstanding limitation in datasets.

Much of the world’s genomic reference data is derived from populations of European ancestry, creating a persistent representational bias that can undermine the accuracy of diagnostic tools, disease-risk predictions and treatment-response assessments for populations that remain underrepresented. OurDNA, a national program designed to address that disparity, aims to sequence the genomes of Australians from underrepresented communities and establish a genomic resource that more accurately reflects the diversity of the nation’s population.

To deliver that ambition at national scale, the Centre for Population Genomics (CPG), a joint initiative of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, has partnered with AGRF to provide whole genome sequencing for its flagship OurDNA program.

“With OurDNA, we are working to build genomic resources that reflect the true diversity of Australian communities,” said Professor Daniel MacArthur, Director of the CPG. “These resources are the tools we need to ensure the future of medicine works for everyone. Partnering with AGRF enables us to deliver the program with world-class sequencing.”

Joe Baini, Chief Executive Officer of AGRF, stated “This collaboration brings together CPG’s vision and leadership with AGRF’s national genomics platforms, building the foundation for more equitable genomic medicine.”

AXELIOS 1 enters a sequencing market in which Illumina’s NovaSeq X remains a major incumbent platform. NovaSeq X is priced at approximately USD $985,000 to $1.25 million, while Roche’s AXELIOS 1 is priced at USD $750,000.

Roche has developed the platform through multiple collaborations, including work with the Hartwig Medical Foundation and Broad Clinical Labs. The company has also partnered with 10x Genomics on single-cell and spatial application kits. Support for its SBX technology backbone also draws on Google DeepVariant and the open-source XOOS tools suite.

However, AXELIOS 1 is initially being released for research use only and has not been approved for commercial diagnostic applications, limiting its deployment to academic and research institutions. Early access users have nevertheless reported practical applications across oncology, genetics and infectious disease research.

For AGRF, the acquisition arrives as Australia enters a period of heightened policy and investment focus on genomics. The platform launch coincides with the recently released National Health Genomics Policy Framework and Implementation Plan 2026–2030, alongside a $500 million genomic research investment through the Genomics Health Futures Mission.

Together, those initiatives signal a level of government commitment to translating genomic discovery into clinical application, although the scale of that commitment remain subject to scrutiny.

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