Highly Sensitive and Specific Test to Enable Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer

A highly sensitive and specific diagnostic test for the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer could enable treatment at the earliest possible stages of disease development.

Tagomics Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) is customizing its Interlace platform to develop a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic test for the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer. Tagomics’ Interlace platform is a novel multiomics workflow that unlocks disease-associated DNA biomarkers, leveraging a unique approach to epigenetic profiling that enriches unmethylated DNA for analysis without modifying the underlying DNA sequence. The Interlace multiomic platform incorporates an innovative approach to epigenetic analysis.

At its heart is a groundbreaking chemoenzymatic method that sorts hypomethylated and hypermethylated biomolecules, providing access to epigenetic biomarkers associated with diseases. In the context of cancer, these markers play a crucial role in enabling earlier diagnosis and pinpointing the tumors tissue of origin. The multiomic platform allows for seamless integration of gene panels or whole genome sequencing, allowing the company to analyze key disease-driving mutations and genomic alterations.

Tagomics’ advanced bioinformatic algorithms grant access to DNA fragmentomic patterns. These markers encompass the length, distribution, and end characteristics of DNA fragments. This offers valuable insights into disease status as fragmentomic features can serve as biomarkers for early disease diagnosis and the identification of tissue of origin. Tagomics will apply Interlace for the detection of genetic and epigenetic mutations associated with colorectal cancer, including the development of new models for the analysis of patient multiomic profiles and identification of new disease biomarkers.

Tagomics will also conduct a pilot study of the diagnostic test for the early detection of colorectal cancer in a clinical patient cohort. The study will profile 250 patients suspected of having colorectal cancer to validate identified biomarkers and demonstrate the use of multiomic profiling for early detection of disease. Following the successful completion of the project, Tagomics will further expand the capabilities and applications of Interlace.

“We believe that the unique, information-rich dataset that Interlace provides us will be pivotal in detecting colorectal cancer at the earliest possible stages of development, enabling treatment of the cancer when it is most vulnerable to modern therapeutics, with the aim of dramatically improving patient outcomes," said Dr. Robert Neely, CSO and co-founder of Tagomics.

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Tagomics Ltd.