Cergentis & the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology (the specialized national center for care, cure and research of children with cancer in the Netherlands) have initiated various collaborations in which breakpoint sequences identified with Cergentis’ TLA technology are used for the design of sensitive & quantitative minimal residual disease (MRD) and/or circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) tests.

MRD tests are instrumental to make informed therapy decisions. MRD tests are currently frequently based on TCR/IGH rearrangements. Gene fusion breakpoint based MRD tests promise to increase the number of patients that can be monitored and to further increase the diagnostic quality of MRD tests.

Gene fusion breakpoint sequences also promise to enable the sensitive quantification of circulating tumor DNA and become a powerful method to determine response to therapy.  

Cergentis’ current partners include the research groups led by Roland Kuiper, Monique den Boer, Lieve Tytgat and Jules Meijerink.

For an application note about TLA and gene fusion based MRD testing: