The Stanford-led study provides early clinical validation of the single-cell sequencing platform to assess cancerous cells remaining post-treatment
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (March 11, 2020) Mission Bio, Inc., the pioneer in high-throughput single-cell multi-omics and DNA analysis today announced the publication of a study demonstrating the power of its Tapestri® Platform to help identify and characterize relapse-driving cells. Sequencing over 300,000 cells, the 38-sample study was led by Ravi Majeti, M.D., Ph.D. and his team at Stanford University and published in Blood Advances. It is the first-ever study using single-cell DNA analysis to track minimal/measurable residual disease (MRD) evaluation for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, and shows early promise for use as a biomarker in clinical trials aimed at specific hematologic malignancies.
Most AML patients go into remission with chemotherapy, yet relapse rates remain high. Evidence suggests that MRD is an independent risk factor for relapse and is essential for guiding treatment decisions. Recently, the FDA finalized guidance for the use of MRD in clinical trials, emphasizing the need to distinguish pre-leukemic cells from leukemic cells. While bulk sequencing can enable MRD detection, the clinical significance is limited due to difficulty in distinguishing cell types. Single-cell sequencing can not only unequivocally differentiate between these two cell types, but can also identify rare clones that can drive disease relapse.
To address these limitations and gain unprecedented insight into MRD, researchers at Stanford University leveraged Mission Bio’s Tapestri Platform to evaluate the clonal dynamics of AML with longitudinal samples collected at diagnosis, remission, and relapse. The Tapestri Platform’s single-cell DNA analysis was able to recapitulate the bulk sequencing data, as well as determine the clonal architecture and mutation co-occurrence at each time point — insights that could serve as biomarkers in the development of more impactful therapies.
The study concludes that single-cell DNA sequencing may help inform patient-specific treatment decisions in AML. “The unique ability of single-cell sequencing to provide information on mutation co-occurrence and leukemia heterogeneity is transformative for evaluating MRD; this data shows early potential in the clinical utility of high throughput single-cell DNA sequencing for this application,” said lead author Asiri Ediriwickrema, M.D., from the Stanford School of Medicine.
We’re extending the limits of bulk sequencing, which brings us closer to understanding how clones in blood cancers evolve,” said Charlie Silver, CEO Mission Bio. “With our Tapestri Platform, we’re excited to equip our customers with the best possible insights so that they can deliver the right treatments to their patients.”
This announcement comes on the heels of Mission Bio’s recent expansion into single-cell multi-omics, launching the industry’s first and only capabilities to detect DNA and protein changes simultaneously from the same cell on its Tapestri Platform to improve the resolution of MRD, in addition to key partnerships with LabCorp and Onconova Therapeutics to leverage the platform for more efficient clinical trials.
The full peer-reviewed study can be found here. To learn more about Mission Bio and how it’s moving precision medicine forward, visit missionbio.com.
About Mission Bio
Mission Bio delivers targeted solutions for high impact applications with the Tapestri Platform. The Tapestri Platform is the industry’s first and only single-cell multi-omics platform, enabling genotype and phenotype from the same cell, and precise detection of heterogeneity in disease progression and treatment response. Application areas include blood cancers, solid tumors, and genome editing validation.
The company’s Tapestri Platform was also honored as a Top 10 Innovation of 2018 by The Scientist, as well as utilized by researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) for the largest single-cell study completed to date. With Mission Bio, researchers have a highly sensitive, targeted, and customizable solution to move precision medicine forward.
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Kathryn Ryan
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