Thermo Fisher Immune Repertoire, Liquid Biopsy NGS Assays

Thermo Fisher has launched the Ion AmpliSeq Immune Repertoire Assay Plus, TCR Beta, a research-use-only, multi-target sequencing panel for immuno-oncology applications. The new panel can be run from sample to analysis in as little as 48 hours, with up to 400-bp read-length amplicons for complete characterization of CDR1, CDR2, and CDR3, according to the company's website.

The company also launched the Ion Torrent Oncomine Lung Cell-Free Total Nucleic Acid Research Asssay, which includes fusion markers associated with lung cancer, including ALK, RET, and ROS1, in addition to DNA, RNA hotspots, copy number variants and MET exon 14 skipping. Thermo Fisher also updated the Ion Torrent Oncomine Breast cfDNA Research Assay. Version 2 now includes new CNVs, more complete coverage of key tumor suppressor gene TP53 and additional SNVs and indels. From a single tube of blood, researchers can use the assays to detect primary tumor drivers and mutations known to cause therapeutic resistance down to 0.1 percent limit of detection, the company said.

Thermo Fisher announced the new products in conjunction with the announcement that it has formed an Immuno-Oncology Consortium to drive adoption of next-generation sequencing (NGS) clinical research panels for the identification of predictive and prognostic biomarkers associated with cancer immunotherapy.