Improving NGS outcomes – a pursuit for optimal biospecimen processing in the anatomical pathology workflow
Published: 12 January 2018
Leica Biosystems, the University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have jointly set up a cooperation to optimise and standardise patient tissue sample preparation technologies, improving the outcome of cutting edge molecular diagnostic methods, specifically Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), for use in a clinical diagnostic pathology setting.
Leica Biosystems, the University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have jointly set up a cooperation to optimise and standardise patient tissue sample preparation technologies, improving the outcome of cutting edge molecular diagnostic methods, specifically Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), for use in a clinical diagnostic pathology setting.
This collaboration is bringing together academic expertise in genomics and molecular pathology with the product development power of a market leader, aiming to set a new pre-analytic standard, creating a baseline for the future optimisation of companion diagnostic testing and sequencing, and opening the field for stratified medicine.
The first experimental phase was completed in September 2017 and yielded a set of parameters that are expected to reliably generate nucleic acids of sufficient yield and quantity for downstream molecular diagnostic analyses. Optimal ranges for variable parameters were defined which enable both NGS and existing technologies from FFPE tissues. In order to confirm that optimal output parameters from the first phase produce reproducibly good results a verification phase will follow. This commenced in October 2017 and includes both large and small tumour samples. Tissue collection is expected to be complete by February 2018 and then samples will be sequenced and analysed. It is hoped that an update will be available at the Node symposium in September 2018.
First published: 12 January 2018