Crucial targetable mutations tracked using Mission Bio’s Tapestri® Platform for single-cell DNA sequencing
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, September 1, 2022 — Mission Bio, the pioneer in high-throughput single-cell DNA and multi-omics analysis, today announced new findings from researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and colleagues in Nature Genetics, using Mission Bio’s Tapestri® Platform to help understand how mutations at the single-cell level drive cancer relapse in pediatric acute lymphoblastic cancer (ALL). This level of granularity is crucial to help understand how the cancer develops and to determine the best possible interventions for individual patients.
ALL is the most common type of cancer found in children, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow that affects white blood cells. If left untreated, too many immature white blood cells arise in the bone marrow and crowd out normal white blood cells, making it much harder for the body to fight infections.
In the paper, teams led by St. Jude’s Jinghui Zhang and Charles Mullighan and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Stephen Hunger sequenced DNA from more than 2700 patients and transcriptomes from almost 1900 patients, identifying several previously uncharacterized pathways and genes targeted by recurrent genomic alterations. Through greater understanding of the patterns of mutation associated with disease subtypes, the origin and development of mutations (mutational ontogeny), the role of different mutational processes, and the nature of clonal evolution, the researchers showed that many mutations commonly targeted in ALL may occur in different clones – findings that may help shape more personalized approaches to treatment. The data also suggest tracking patient mutations at the single-cell level during treatment could help monitor disease recurrence.
The study is the latest demonstration of how Mission Bio’s Tapestri® Platform allows researchers to probe the fine details of cancer biology at a single-cell resolution not possible with bulk sequencing. Single-cell sequencing was used to examine the co-occurrence and possible exclusiveness of mutations, details that could not be resolved by non-single-cell sequencing approaches. This type of analysis is increasingly required by top-tier publications not only to provide insights into the presence of mutations but also to map the clonal evolution of cancer cells in disease. In turn, this is key to designing precision therapeutics for interventions and determining drivers of treatment relapse in patients.
“This type of analysis provides unique insight into clonal evolution and shows that kinase-related mutations, for example, are often secondary events and most frequently mutually exclusive,” said Dr. Mullighan, who is Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at St. Jude’s and co-leads the hematological malignancies program. “Simultaneous targeted single cell DNA sequencing and cell-surface protein expression analysis reveal a correlation between immunophenotype and genotype within the same cell. This type of information is not only clinically relevant but potentially actionable and helps to fine-tune the expansive genomic landscape of pediatric ALL.”
Todd Druley, Chief Medical Officer at Mission Bio, remarked: “This is a great example of how the Tapestri® Platform can be used to provide an unprecedented level of single cell information to oncologists, information that can help guide patient-specific treatments. The ability to identify and track targetable mutations in single cells offers a new dimension and specificity to the work of clinicians looking to identify the presence of residual or recurring cancer.”
To learn more about Mission Bio and the Tapestri® Platform, please visit www.missionbio.com.
About Mission Bio
Mission Bio is a life sciences company that accelerates discoveries and cures for a wide range of diseases by equipping researchers with the tools they need to better measure and predict our resistance and response to new therapies. Mission Bio’s multi-omics approach improves time-to-market for new therapeutics, including innovative cell and gene therapies that provide new pathways to health. Founded in 2014, Mission Bio has secured investment from Novo Growth, Cota Capital, Agilent Technologies, Mayfield Fund, and others.
The company’s Tapestri® Platform gives researchers around the globe the power to interrogate every molecule in a cell together, providing a comprehensive understanding of activity from a single sample. Tapestri® is the only commercialized multi-omics platform capable of analyzing DNA and protein simultaneously from the same sample at single-cell resolution. The Tapestri® Platform is being utilized by customers at leading research centers, as well as pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies worldwide to develop treatments and eventually cures for cancer.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations regarding the transaction described above, including anticipated benefits, anticipated payments, future business and market opportunities, and anticipated growth resulting from the transaction; the potential, safety, efficacy, and regulatory and clinical progress of our product candidates; our position as a leader in the development of genetic medicines; and the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to fund our operations; These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: we may not realize the anticipated benefits of the collaboration with Oxford Biomedica; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials, and on general economic conditions; we have and expect to continue to incur significant losses; our need for additional funding, which may not be available; failure to identify additional product candidates and develop or commercialize marketable products; the early stage of our development efforts; potential unforeseen events during clinical trials could cause delays or other adverse consequences; risks relating to the regulatory approval process; our product candidates may cause serious adverse side effects; inability to maintain our collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; our reliance on third parties; failure to obtain U.S. or international marketing approval; ongoing regulatory obligations; effects of significant competition; unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives; product liability lawsuits; failure to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; the possibility of system failures or security breaches; risks relating to intellectual property and significant costs as a result of operating as a public company. These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“the SEC”) could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.
Media Contacts
Consort Partners for Mission Bio
