Circulating biomarkers in melanoma immunotherapy
Posted 29th June 2021 by Nicholas Noakes
Genevieve Boland, speaking at the Research & Technology Series, described the translational research conducted at her laboratory. Using tumour and blood samples from patients before treatment, at meaningful clinical changes, progression, and post-mortem she, and her team are trying to understand the biology of Melanoma to treat patients better.
Multiplex Super-Selective PCR Assays for the Detection and Quantitation of Rare Somatic Mutations
Posted 22nd February 2021 by Nicholas Noakes
Professor Fred Kramer spoke at the recent Research & Technology Series exploring Flow Cytometry / qPCR & Digital PCR / Liquid Biopsies. During his presentation, he explained how Super Selective primers enable the simultaneous identification and quantitation of rare somatic mutations in routine multiplex PCR assays, while virtually eliminating signals from abundant closely related wild-type sequences.
How to translate biomarker discoveries into clinical applications
Posted 8th July 2020 by Joshua Sewell
Extracellular vesicles provide an exciting opportunity as a modality for non-invasive biomarkers, which may enable them to be used as biomarkers for tumour metastasis.
ctDNA and AI are the way forward in early cancer detection and metastatic treatment
Posted 24th June 2020 by Joshua Sewell
We spoke with Dr David Guttery about his pioneering work using circulating tumour DNA to enable early detection, monitoring and therapeutic decision making for better patient outcomes in gynaecological cancers.
Strategic screening enables effective biomarker discovery
Posted 19th June 2019 by Joshua Sewell
During my eight years at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, I led a protein technologies group. We developed a protein expression library, and then high-content protein arrays. In total, we made arrays with 10,000 different human proteins.
Why do biomarkers fail?
Posted 12th June 2019 by Joshua Sewell
When conducting an experiment to identify biomarkers, it is crucial to design the experiment properly. 80-90% of all biomarker populations for the last 20 years have not and cannot be reproduced, and the main reason that biomarkers fail is that these experiments are not designed properly. In this post, I will outline two ways in which experiments are poorly designed, and then outline the technological and methodological solution in a later blog.
Identifying biomarkers to track tumour burden in patient blood
Posted 3rd June 2019 by Joshua Sewell
There is a huge need to identify biomarkers to discern which metastatic colorectal cancer patients will benefit from treatment using Regorafenib. Despite being the latest approved drugs for the disease, Regorafenib has limited clinical efficacy and is associated with a number of side effects. However, a lot of patients are treated with Regorafenib as it is the only treatment available for patients who cannot receive anti-EGFR treatment due to K-RAS or BRAF mutation.
The Development and Commercialisation of Robust Circulating DNA & RNA Tests
Posted 21st March 2018 by Jane Williams
Precision medicine in oncology requires matching each patient with treatment personalised to their genes and often the proteomic profile of their cancer. Liquid biopsies continue to gain grounds as a tool for diagnostic testing in oncology.