A recent paper in The Lancet Microbe reports the first data from CovidNudge: DnaNudge’s rapid, lab-free COVID-19 test. The test: DnaNudge uses a SNP-genotyping technology developed by The Technology Partnership in Cambridge and explained in US10093965B2 patent. A sample is introduced into the Nudge cartridge, a disposable, sealed, and integrated lab-on-chip device, […]
Wow Illumina just spent $8 billion buying GRAIL; arguably the leader in methylation-based early detection of cancer with their Galleri test (read the press release). Get more info over at the website they’ve put together for the deal at transformingcancerdetection.com, which includes a presentation that also highlights […]
The UK biotech sector was in the news yesterday morning with two companies and their COVID tests making headlines: Oxford Nanopore and DNANudge. Both are offering rapid testing for COVID-19 in the NHS and in care homes (where they are desperately needed). There is only […]
Alongside the recent publication from Daniel De Carvalho’s group on glioma detection with cfMeDIP-Seq in Nature Medicine is a report describing the validation of this technology for plasma and urine detection of renal cell carcinoma. In “Detection of renal cell carcinoma using plasma and urine […]
Brain cancer is difficult to diagnose and stratify without an invasive biopsy. Daniel De Carvalho’s group have used their cfChIP-Seq technology to non-invasively diagnose and classify brain tumours, potentially removing the need for surgical tissue biopsies. The power of the assay comes from its use of […]
SandstoneDx have a very neat mini-centrifuge that enables plasma separation from fresh blood draws at point-of-collection. Anyone performing liquid biopsy knows how vital plasma stability is. If nucleated blood cells lyse then the sample can be ruined for ctDNA analysis. Most people in Oncology already […]
A new paper from Nitzan Rosenfeld’s group at CRUK-CI (my old stomping ground) reports astounding sensitivity for ctDNA liquid biopsy. In “ctDNA monitoring using patient-specific sequencing and integration of variant reads” Jonathan Wan and his co-authors performed whole exome sequencing on tumour biopsies (and PBMCs) […]
Avida Biomed are an early startup who have developed a novel targeted methylation sequencing technology: Point-n-Seq, for cancer early-detection. Point-n-Seq uses targeted methylation sequencing, which performs enrichment of target molecules directly from cfDNA before bisulfite conversion and amplification. Target panels are small 1-1000 markers. The […]
Mammoth Biosciences, one of the two companies developing CRISPR as a diagnostic tool, submitted a medRxiv preprint showcasing their work on a Covid-19 assay. The SARS-CoV-2 DETECTR assay generate results in 30 minutes from from extracted patient sample RNA. The assay performs simultaneous reverse transcription […]
In Inference of transcription factor binding from cell-free DNA enables tumor subtype prediction and early detection researchers at the Institute of Human Genetics in Austria demonstrate the use of cfDNA for cancer detection and monitoring. The group performed deep ATAC-Seq and deep cfDNA nucleosome mapping to […]
