Many of my followers in the cancer space, especially the Hemes folks, will already understand what MRD is and why it’s important. But for those of you who don’t know I thought an explainer might be helpful. I took inspiration from Keiths COVID qPCR explainer and this […]
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 […]
CARTANA in situ sequencing was just bought by 10X Genomics for $41.2 million. They provide a complement to the Visium technology that generates beautiful gene expression maps of tissue sections as seen in Fig 1c of a recent bioRxiv report (see below). The method was […]
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 […]
When I wrote the post about the $1000 genome’s upcoming 5th birthday last Summer I was hoping the Moore’s Law genome graph would restart it’s downward trajectory. That has not happened according to todays look at their graphic. I’m beginning to wonder how long we’ll […]
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) […]
