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Bio-Rad, Allegheny Health Network Partner for ddPCR-Based Cancer Monitoring

NEW YORK – Bio-Rad Laboratories announced on Monday that it has formed a research collaboration with Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute to support tumor-informed molecular residual disease (MRD) monitoring using Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital PCR technology.

The collaboration will generate clinical evidence for a range of cancer types for MRD monitoring of solid tumors with curative intent treatment, Bio-Rad said in a statement.

The firm's multiplex QX600 ddPCR System will be used to detect rare circulating tumor DNA from solid tumors, while the Allegheny Health Network will offer its expertise in molecular oncology, assay design, and clinical data generation. The AHN Cancer Institute can also collect samples through its Moonshot program, which has assembled samples and data from thousands of patients to enable biomarker research for predicting patient outcomes and therapy response.

"We are proud to be active players in the growing MRD space, and we are confident that the unmatched sensitivity and precision of our ddPCR platform takes the industry another step toward improving the lives of cancer patients," Simon May, executive VP and president of life sciences at Bio-Rad, said in a statement.

William LaFramboise, a professor and chief genomics technology officer at the AHN Cancer Institute, said that implementing the Bio-Rad molecular technology "will allow us to monitor the response of solid tumors to therapy using routine patient blood samples and will help us achieve proof of concept for Bio-Rad's ddPCR platform in detecting MRD in our patients."

Allegheny Health Network serves patients in western Pennsylvania as well as in Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and New York.

Bio-Rad recently launched the ddPlex ESR1 Mutation Detection Kit for the QX600 instrument to aid translational research, therapy selection, and disease monitoring. The kit enabless same-day results from either circulating tumor DNA from plasma or DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples.