In this webinar, the second in the “New Frontiers in Liquid Biopsy Research” series, Luca Quagliata, Senior Consultant in the Molecular Pathology Unit at University Hospital Basel, shares two specific unmet needs within his lab’s liquid biopsy research that led to the eventual evaluation, adoption, and implementation of the latest liquid biopsy Oncomine NGS solutions from Thermo Fisher.

Dr. Quagliata’s lab at University Hospital Basel’s Molecular Pathology Unit has established methodologies for the genomic analysis of circulating cell-free tumor DNA (cfDNA) for lung and colon cancer research. The team’s validated workflow includes cfDNA extraction from plasma followed by next-generation sequencing with commercially available or specific custom-made gene panels and clinical interpretation of results to support their study.

Dr. Quagliata discusses two challenges that his lab faced with early liquid biopsy assays: 1) they could not detect fusions, and 2) they could not detect mutations from multiple cancer types with one NGS assay. He shares details of how the Ion Torrent Oncomine Lung Cell-Free Total Nucleic Acid Assay addresses the first of these challenges and how the Ion Torrent Oncomine Pan-Cancer Cell-Free Assay addresses the second.

For information on all webinar in this series, click here.