Liquid biopsy is a powerful tool in oncology for the non-invasive detection of disease biomarkers, treatment selection, and disease recurrence monitoring. Remarkable technology advances are enabling liquid biopsy application in research and precision oncology; however, several challenges remain. It is increasingly clear that multiomic data are important for optimal liquid biopsy test performance and discovery power. Genetic sequencing has been the primary application to obtain information from these samples. Traditional sequencing data only provides information on actionable somatic mutations, and the detection of those loci in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has remained challenging.

Combining genetic sequence with DNA methylation data is used to explore the relationship between genetic variants and changes in DNA methylation. Adding methylation information can differentiate cancer from non-cancer samples, as 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) profiles have been shown to be predictive of early-stage cancer. By interrogating 5mC and 5hmC, you can explore beyond the genome by examining the methylation status of control elements, differentially methylated regions, and other variant-associated methylation states at single base resolution. The ability to differentiate 5mC from 5hmC offers the potential to discover novel and more sensitive biomarkers in liquid biopsy. cfDNA samples are limited. A standard blood draw yields an average of only 10 ng of cfDNA, of which circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), is a small minority. With limited input amounts, splitting samples into two workflows for separate genetic and epigenetic analyses is often not possible. For biomarker discovery, the ideal solution would provide complete genetic and epigenetic information from a single low-input sample.

To overcome these challenges and get the most biologically relevant information from scarce cfDNA samples, we introduce duet multiomics solution evoC. duet evoC is an innovative technology that integrates complete genetic sequence data with differentiated 5mC and 5hmC at single-base resolution from low nanogram amounts of cfDNA.

Reveal the Power of the 6-Base Genome With duet multiomics solution evoC

The article discusses the importance of multiomic data in liquid biopsy for oncology, highlighting the challenges of traditional genetic sequencing and the benefits of combining genetic sequence with DNA methylation data.