Thermo Fisher Scientific, Carlsbad, Calif, has expanded its Oncomine portfolio with new assays for liquid biopsy and immunooncology.
The Ion Torrent Oncomine pancancer cell-free assay enables reproducible detection and analysis of tumor DNA and RNA across all major classes of somatic mutations. The assay requires only a single vial of blood, with as little as 1 ng of nucleic acid input, and produces results within 2 days. Targeting more than 50 genes across multiple cancer types—including breast, colorectal, lung, pancreatic, and thyroid cancers—the cell-free total nucleic acid assay is the broadest developed by Thermo Fisher for clinical research applications using liquid biopsy techniques.
The Ion Torrent Oncomine tumor mutation load assay is based on a carefully selected set of 409 genes that can be sequenced using as little as 20 ng of DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens. The assay is designed to improve selection strategies for immune therapy clinical trials. It follows recent introduction of the Ion AmpliSeq immune repertoire assay plus, TCR beta, which helps identify population subsets predisposed to immune-mediated adverse events; and the Oncomine immune response research assay, which characterizes gene expression in tumor microenvironments for immune response pathways.
Both new assays integrate with Ion Torrent tools for sample preparation, targeted sequencing, and downstream bioinformatics and reporting, such as the Oncomine Knowledgebase reporter—one of the largest curated sets of evidence in oncology research. The entire solution is the industry’s most complete end-to-end workflow based on a single platform. When combined with the newly launched Ion GeneStudio S5 series instruments, the entire offering provides clinical researchers a set of comprehensive, cost-effective, and rapid sample-to-answer tools they can implement in their own lab.
For more information, visit Thermo Fisher Scientific.
