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Columbia University Medical Center NGS Cancer Panel Receives New York State Conditional Approval

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pillar Biosciences said on Thursday that Columbia University Medical Center has received conditional approval from the New York State Department of Health for clinical use of a next-generation sequencing panel.

CUMC's Laboratory of Personalized Genomic Medicine will use the Columbia Solid Tumor Panel, a custom panel from Pillar, at the front end of its molecular oncology testing workflow. The assay uses stem loop inhibition-mediated amplification, or SLIMamp, enrichment chemistry and single-tube amplification to look for gene variants associated with solid tumors in 47 genes.

Under NYSDOH's tiered evaluation policy for laboratory-developed tests, initial approval of moderate-risk tests is conditional and requires further review.

"We are happy for Columbia's conditional approval," Pillar Founder and CEO Gang Song said in a statement. "Our mission is to make precision medicine accessible, and we are excited about Columbia's ability to more efficiently leverage lab resources to provide accurate diagnostics to patients with limited time for treatment determination."

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