DNA Methylation Biomarkers for Cancer – a Measurement Challenge Although studied for decades, the study of methylated cytosine DNA residues is not a trivial task for clinical in vitro diagnostics The challenge of methylation analysis in clinical diagnostics In the world of diagnostics, the measurement of biological analytes for clinical use trace its [...]
Why is stool such a difficult non-invasive starting material for early colorectal cancer detection? Fecal Immunohistochemistry Tests (FIT) and guiac-based Fecal Occult Blood tests (gFOBT) are inexpensive and widely available tests for colorectal cancer screening. However there remains a clear need for an accurate blood-based colorectal screening test. A stool collection vial for colorectal [...]
Blood collection tubes prior to centrifuging The difference between plasma and serum for cell-free DNA liquid biopsies Important pre-analytical sampling considerations for DNA and protein biomarker work Using plasma or serum for analysis of novel biomarkers for the early detection of cancer is an effort that spans decades. Thanks to its minimally-invasive nature, [...]
The power of methylation haplotypes How NGS technology informed biology and now transforming cancer diagnostics with an epigenomics Cambrian Explosion Finding a cell-free cancer signal is like finding a needle in a haystack... Of the 28 million CpG residues in the human genome, 60% to 80% of them are methylated at the 5’ [...]
Five Phases of Biomarker Development for Early Detection of Cancer Where are the retrospective studies? Collecting samples About two decades ago was an exciting time in biology, and optimism reached a peak with the first draft of the Human Genome Project announced in 2000 (“A revolution in preventing, diagnosing, treating, and curing disease” [...]
Mammography, a common cancer screening test Current screening approaches for early cancer detection The American Cancer Society screening recommendations and a thought experiment A recent article by a Stanford professor (and Andreessen Horowitz venture fund general partner) Vijay Pande in The Scientific American, entitled "How to Engineer Biology", subtitled 'Billion-dollar bridges rarely fail—whereas [...]
Singlera detects single molecules of ctmDNA Single molecule detection of ctmDNA The reason why early detection biomarkers for cancer is not a trivial task First, second and third-generation sequencing First-generation sequencing (also known as Sanger sequencing, or dideoxy-terminator sequencing) was the technology used for the Human Genome Project, and remains a workhorse and [...]
A ribbon model of molecules of protein p53 binding to a strand of DNA. Obtain many circulating biomarkers broadly, or a few biomarkers deeply? Can you have it all? At the recent Society for Neuroscience, Abcam sponsored a workshop entitled "Biomarkers of Neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s Disease" where Dr. Nicole [...]
An Illustration of Big Data Big Data and Early Detection of Cancer Big Data is great when there is signal, not so great if there isn't any signal Big Data is a popular topic in this age of machine learning and artificial intelligence. There is plenty of activity in the healthcare realm, not [...]
A group of CAT scans of the human brain What if circulating tumor methylated DNA from brain cancer could be detected? Can ctmDNA be an early detection tool for glioblastoma multiforme? Gliblastoma Multiforme is a terrible form of brain cancer. With a reported 5-year survival rate of only 4.4%, at just the 3-year [...]
