OGT Unveils Somatic CNV Detection for CLL with New NGS Panel

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), has announced the launch of its SureSeq CLL + CNV Panel — the company’s latest next-generation sequencing (NGS) offering for research into Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL). The SureSeq CLL + CNV Panel aims to fulfil the need for reliable copy number variation (CNV) detection by NGS, including trisomy 12 and loss of heterozygosity (LOH), as well as somatic variants, even at low allele frequency. The panel can detect both small and large CNVs at 10% minor allele frequency (MAF), SNVs and indels down to 1% MAF and LOH at 5-10Mb.

The comprehensive panel covers all the most up-to-date, evidence-based genes and genomic aberrations for CLL and is designed to enable laboratories to simplify their laboratory workflow by replacing multiple assays with a single one.

CLL is the most common type of leukaemia in adults and is associated with chromosomal aberrations ranging from somatic variants, to small and large CNVs, including trisomies. This complex genetic heterogeneity combined with a lack of sensitive and reliable NGS solutions has meant that currently, scientists need to employ multiple methods to build a genomic profile of CLL samples.

One area in particular where NGS has traditionally struggled is in the detection of CNVs, which can occur in important tumour suppressor genes, such as TP53. Additional techniques such as microarray, karyotyping or fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) are often required to detect these CNVs and structural abnormalities, such as loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and trisomy 12.

For researchers, the single NGS panel is designed to simplify the workflow and consolidate the profiling of the wide variety of genomic changes into a single analysis. Reliable data analyses can be carried out with OGT’s Interpret software, a complementary software solution for accurate identification and visualisation of all variants including CNVs.