Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Memorial Sloan Kettering, Illumina Partner on Research Studies of ctDNA

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Illumina are collaborating on research studies of circulating tumor DNA, the partners said today.

The goal of the studies is to better understand the biology of ctDNA and to inform new strategies for diagnosing and monitoring cancer with the help of ctDNA.

The studies will involve multiple cancer types. MSK will collect the samples and Illumina will analyze them for ctDNA using its sequencing technology. The partners plan to validate a ctDNA assay and to demonstrate correlations between ctDNA and cancer burden. 

According to Illumina Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Rick Klausner, the program will investigate whether invasive monitoring could be replaced with a blood test, whether ctDNA reflects the total burden of cancer clones, and how it compares to biopsies for predicting therapy response and outcome.

"The possibility of reducing the number of invasive and expensive diagnostic and monitoring procedures with a simple blood draw is a game-changer for cancer patients and for oncology," said Jose Baselga, physician-in-chief and chief medical officer at MSK, in a statement.

The Scan

Foxtail Millet Pangenome, Graph-Based Reference Genome

Researchers in Nature Genetics described their generation of a foxtail millet pangenome, which they say can help in crop trait improvement.

Protein Length Distribution Consistent Across Species

An analysis in Genome Biology compares the lengths of proteins across more than 2,300 species, finding similar length distributions.

Novel Genetic Loci Linked to Insulin Resistance in New Study

A team reports in Nature Genetics that it used glucose challenge test data to home in on candidate genes involved in GLUT4 expression or trafficking.

RNA Editing in Octopuses Seems to Help Acclimation to Shifts in Water Temperature

A paper in Cell reports that octopuses use RNA editing to help them adjust to different water temperatures.