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 [...]
Raising colorectal cancer screening rates is a tough task An accurate blood-based test to detect colorectal cancer is the key to lowering the mortality from this devastating disease Screenshot from USPSTF CRC screening video In 2018 there were an estimated 140,250 new cases of colorectal cancer (CRC), and 50,630 estimated deaths, [...]
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’ [...]
Screen capture from Dr. Gore's video presentation of the Singlera early-detection technology. Singlera ASHG Presentation now available A video presentation by Dr. Athurva Gore, Assoc. Director of Bioinformatics Singlera Genomics, is now available. The title of his talk is "Circulating tumor DNA methylation haplotypes in plasma can detect cancer four years prior to [...]
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 [...]
Circulating Biomarkers: the Internet of Biology Signals within the remarkable circulatory system A few weeks ago learning about a new San Diego CA company called Cardea Biosciences they described a novel functionalized graphene biosensor with the tagline, ‘Powering the Internet of Biology’. This is a powerful metaphor – the Internet is seen as a ‘fourth [...]
Why use circulating tumor methylated DNA (ctmDNA) to detect disease? Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) isn’t abundant enough for subtle signals from circulating DNA History and context of cell-free DNA and its role in cancer In 1949 Mandel and Matais discovered cell-free DNA in plasma in a French publication and in 1965 (seventeen years [...]
Looking for new circulating biomarker signals with new technology Note: A version of this post was previously published on The Next Generation Technologist blog. Cell-free DNA is an attractive analyte For those not too familiar with cell-free DNA, this is DNA shed from natural (or unnatural) cell death and typically is cleared from [...]
