There’s a lot of buzz around Bionano (BNGO) right now. Due to a growing interest in gene editing and the potential of its genome imaging system, Saphyr, the company has caught investors’ attention.
Maxim analyst Jason McCarthy was an early champion of the cytogenetics specialist, while the company was still flying under the radar.
The analyst believes the platform is in the early stage of its usage and its potential is only stating to be recognized.
“Saphyr is a platform technology, and key to driving adoption by institutions is to demonstrate applicability across a wide range of disease areas,” the 5-star analyst said. “Its use in hematological malignancies and constitutional/rare genetic disorders has been well-categorized, however disease areas like solid tumors and even potentially central nervous system (CNS) disorders represent additional opportunities to shift the diagnostics paradigm.”
The platform appears to be showing its worth in these areas already.
The Penn State Institute recently published a technique for solid tumor analysis for a wide variety of cancer forms. Even when present in small quantities, Saphyr had the ability to recognize structural variations.
Karyotyping has been commonly used to detect structural variations (SV) in hematology, but it hasn’t been able to do so in solid tumors.
With a platform such as Saphyr, McCarthy says, the technology could provide new insights into cancer testing for solid tumors, which in the oncology field, is the biggest clinical and research market.
As for CNS disorders, Bionano subsidiary Lineagen recently published a method called NeuroSCORE, for the identification of genes that could be at the root of neurological diseases.
“This not only improves the ability of Lineagen’s genetic counselors to interpret variants of unknown significance (VUS),” McCarthy noted, “But can be integrated into Saphyr to quickly filter SVs based on risk of causing CNS disease.”
All in all, McCarthy rates BNGO a Buy along with a $14 price target. The implication for investors? Potential upside of 39%. (To watch McCarthy’s track record, click here)
What does the rest of the Street think about BNGO? It turns out that other analysts agree with McCarthy. The stock received 3 Buys and 1 Hold in the last three months, making the consensus rating a Strong Buy. The average price target stands at $10.94, which implies ~9% upside from current levels. (See BNGO stock analysis on TipRanks)
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
