Twist Bioscience has launched a Human Methylome Panel that is aimed at advancing applications in cancer metastasis, human development, and functional genetics. The panel can be used to identify a robust, collated set of CpG sites, methylated cytosine, and guanine nucleic bases, across the human genome to identify biologically relevant methylation markers.
Compared to traditional array based or whole genome bisulfite sequencing approaches, this panel provides overall cost savings while also covering previously unknown methylation markers. The Twist Human Methylome Panel can also be used as a first pass discovery tool to identify methylation biomarkers that can then be used in a variety of applications, such as more targeted liquid biopsy panels.
The DNA methylome is the comprehensive set of nucleotides within the genome that have a methyl group attached. DNA methylation plays a key role in many biological processes, including cancer. When present on a single nucleotide, a methyl group can alter genetic behavior without changing the DNA sequence. Analyzing the pattern in which methylation occurs within a specific genetic sequence as well as the fraction of the genome that has a methyl group attached (methylated) provides a unique understanding of disease pathology. CpG sites, which often repeat to create CpG islands, turn a gene “on” or “off” and are associated with neurodegeneration, cancer, and multiple rare diseases. Detection of CpG islands therefore can inform diagnoses or development stage of multiple diseases.
“With the customizable Twist Human Methylome Panel, we are able to cover four times the amount of CpG sites compared to average microarrays. Using our NGS-based panel provides a higher dynamic range, allowing more accurate identification of differentially methylated regions, which we believe will enhance research-based assays and diagnostic tests that incorporate this dynamic tool,” says Emily M. Leproust, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Previously, when identifying methylation markers, researchers had to choose between a low-cost, static option or a very expensive panel that covers a significant portion of the methylome, but often more than needed. As technology progresses, the compromise that researchers need to make between cost and coverage becomes less and less.”
The Twist Human Methylome Panel is highly targeted to capture and detect the most recently identified and relevant CpG methylation regions in the genome. Twist uses hybrid capture panels to explore the methylome and the content that can be investigated to include 84.2% of CpG islands as well as other CpG sites.
“We look forward to expanding our work with Twist as well as extending our epigenomics expertise and offerings to customers by incorporating the Twist Human Methylome Panel into our Epigenomics Profiling Services. This aligns with our efforts to continue offering new solutions to link methylation research with a wide range of disease indications and progression,” says Didier Allaer, CEO of Diagenode, an epigenomics company and early access customer for the Twist Human Methylome Panel. “The new panel will enable us to offer a solution with broad coverage of the human methylome and to bring epigenetics research to new frontiers of biomarker discovery on clinical samples.”
