Thermo Fisher introduces new suite of immune repertoire assays

Thermo Fisher Scientific has expanded its haematology oncology next-generation sequencing (NGS) portfolio with the introduction of a new suite of Ion Torrent Oncomine immune repertoire assays.

The new immune repertoire assays were developed to identify potentially malignant clones of T-cells and B-cells, which play a significant role in the immune response system.

Thermo Fisher’s new pan-clonality assays deploy Ion AmpliSeq technology to target multiple parts of the B- and T-cell immune receptors using a single reaction with ultra-high sensitivity.

The process will help enhance the probability of malignant clone detection and reduce the time to results.

Available on the Ion GeneStudio S5 system, the new suite of immune repertoire assays use integrated analysis and data visualisation tools to simplify the interpretation of results for laboratories and healthcare professionals.

According to the company, identification of distinct receptor DNA sequences will help inform diagnostic, prognostic and therapy development studies in the progression of lymphoid cancers such as leukemias, lymphomas and diseases such as multiple myeloma.

The use of NGS technology will help increase detection sensitivity compared to traditional testing methods such as flow cytometry or qPCR.

Thermo Fisher Scientific clinical NGS president Garret Hampton said: “Every three minutes, one person in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Genomic testing can make a significant impact on researching and understanding these cancers – but we need to bring more testing to in-house laboratories where results can be made available quickly to healthcare professionals.

“The new Oncomine immune repertoire assays unlock the power of NGS to help researchers rapidly obtain a tremendous amount of insight about a lymphoid cancer sample, including its prevalence and an understanding of how it is evolving.”

In March this year, Thermo Fisher launched Applied Biosystems TaqMan SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Panel, which is a customisable menu of 22 verified real-time PCR assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 mutations. NS Medical Devices