Illumina, a developer, manufacturer and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function based in San Diego, will acquire Santa Clara-based NextBio, a provider of clinical and genomic informatics.

NextBio's big-data platforms aggregate and analyze large quantities of phenotypic and genomic data for research and clinical applications. With the addition of NextBio's platform, Illumina will be able to offer customers enterprise level bioinformatics solutions that accelerate the discovery of new associations between the human genome and disease, and ultimately, enable the application of those discoveries within healthcare.

"This agreement with NextBio demonstrates Illumina's unwavering commitment to drive the adoption of sequencing in new markets and vastly improve the genomic information workflow," said Jay Flatley, president and CEO of Illumina. "NextBio enables the classification and aggregation of phenotypic and clinical data within a single environment and allows analysis of that data at unprecedented speed and scale. The combination of Illumina's BaseSpace cloud computing environment for next-generation sequencing with NextBio's platform for integrating patient data will allow us to deliver solutions that seamlessly integrate the entire workflow from sample to result."

NextBio's platform allows customers to quickly compare their experimental results against thousands of published and private data sets by means of a correlation engine, which pre-computes billions of significant connections between disparate data elements and helps discover new associations. NextBio Clinical, which in 2012 passed an independent HIPAA audit, is designed for seamless integration with existing clinical and research systems. Backed by Software as a Service (SaaS) enterprise technology, it is capable of analyzing petabytes of data.

NextBio's database platforms currently are used by researchers and clinicians in more than 50 commercial and academic institutions. NextBio will be integrated into Illumina's newly formed Enterprise Informatics business under the leadership of Nick Naclerio, SVP of corporate and venture development and general manager of enterprise informatics. NextBio co-founder Ilya Kupershmidt and chief technology officer Satnam Alag will continue to provide scientific and technical leadership as part of the new business unit.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of October.