Agilent Announces NGS Assay for Comprehensive Genomic Profiling
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Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) has announced the launch of the Agilent SureSelect Cancer CGP Assay designed for somatic variant profiling for a broad range of solid tumor types. The pan-cancer assay design is based on an NGS panel comprising 679 genes globally curated from leading cancer databases and in partnership with key clinical cancer researchers. The assay workflow is efficient, automatable, and flexible, making tumor molecular profiling more accessible to the broad clinical research community.
The biomarkers include key classes of somatic variants (SNVs, CNVs, indels, translocations, de novo gene fusions), along with the immuno-oncology biomarkers TMB (tumor mutational burden), and MSI (microsatellite instability) to aid clinical and translational researchers in investigating potential cancer therapeutics. Based on Agilent’s library prep and target enrichment chemistry, this high-performance assay provides up-to-date, globally curated biomarker content for comprehensive molecular profiling of solid tumors, supports as low as 10 ng of input, and incorporates walkaway automation to improve lab efficiency and productivity. The workflow incorporates flexible data analysis options, including Alissa Interpret for tertiary analysis and reporting, customer bioinformatics pipelines, and third-party software.
“We’re pleased to commercialize the SureSelect Cancer CGP assay, which leverages our SureSelect chemistry that can accommodate a low amount of starting material so that scientists can profile more quantity-limited samples,” explained Ronda Allen, Ph.D., vice president and general manager, Genomics Division at Agilent. “Library preparation and target enrichment can be automated either on the benchtop Magnis NGS prep system, which will markedly improve workflow efficiency, reducing the hands-on time from hours to only 15 minutes, or on the Bravo NGS workstation, for scaling up to 96 samples per run.”
Dr. Alistair Ritchie, sequencing laboratory manager at Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory (GPOL), shared his experience with the assay. “The comprehensive coverage of the CGP assay means we can batch DNA from any solid tumor on a single run to streamline our workflow,” he said. “Our team has come to rely on the Agilent SureSelect XT HS2 method for all our target enrichment assays. We have never used a method that gives us such reproducible results with such a low input amount.”
“The release of the SureSelect Cancer CGP assay, as well as the recent acquisition of Avida Biomed, demonstrates Agilent’s commitment to developing high-performing NGS tools for an expanding oncology portfolio, accelerating the advancement of precision oncology. We are proud to partner with clinical researchers and leading cancer centers, such as Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory,” added Allen.
