More data
Sequence all genomic variants including epigenetic modifications
Better results
Directly sequence long sections of DNA (>50 kbp) with high accuracy
Less complexity
Minimal Sample Prep and Reduced Reagent Consumption
Direct Long-Read Epigenetic Sequencing Platform
Addresses the limitations of today’s sequencing technologies to advance the promise of precision medicine.
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There are over 4000 recent publications on the epigenetics of cancer alone and over 39 epigenetic drugs currently in clinical trials.
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Epigenetic modifications are potentially reversible, offering promising new therapeutic approaches for treating these diseases using epigenetic modulators.
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More and more research has found that many diseases have overlapping epigenetic signatures.
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Epigenetics, a rapidly expanding field of biology, involves the study of changes in gene expression that don't stem from changes in the DNA sequence, but rather from chemical modifications of DNA and its associated proteins.
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Changes to the epigenome — DNA methylation, histone modifications, and the chromatin state — influence what genes are expressed
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Many changes, or modifications to one’s genome are not able to be read today. These modifications turn genes "on" or "off and play a vital role in a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders.
100
100
approved drugs targeting specific mutations within cancer
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approved epigenetic drugs
8
approved epigenetic treatments
234K
epigenetic cancer papers
Why SERS Raman?
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Compared to the ionic sensing of other nanopore methods, SERS-based detection provides direct structural information, enabling distinction of individual nucleotides and epigenetic, isotopic and other chemical modification markers
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Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) facilitates the direct measurement of the actual physical properties of in-situ nucleotides in nucleic acids.
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Takes a complete spectral “Fingerprint” of each nucleotide and detects critical DNA modifications with distinct spectra - Epigenetic Modifications Directly Measured - example
dCTP, 5m-dCT, 5hm-dCTP.
Structural variants (SVs). A large percentage of the genetic variation in the human population is due to structural changes and these changes account for a variety of human diseases.
Haplotype-resolved sequencing. Sequencing with a long-read approach means that all polymorphisms are
assigned to a specific chromosome (i.e., maternal vs. paternal), and links are vestablished between
mutations (or variants) in distant regulatory elements and cis-linked genes on the same chromosome,
yielding valuable elucidation of disease states.
De novo whole genome assembly is possible with current short read technologies; however, the assembly
of short reads requires tremendous computational resource, and the quality of the resulting genome
assembly is low relative to re-sequencing projects or projects that incorporate long-read technologies. Our
long reads will fill gaps and provide scaffolding for short reads and resolution of repetitive regions
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We load DNA onto our proprietary nanochannel structures and linearize it
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We control velocity of long stretches of unlabeled, unamplified detection of nucleic acid to move DNA
to our proprietary enhancement structures (metamaterial/plasmonic)
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Once the DNA passes enhancement structures, we take a complete spectral “Fingerprint” of the
chemical & physical properties of each nucleotide using SERs Raman spectroscopy