Helicos Announces Collaboration with Children's Oncology Group to Elucidate Genomic Signatures in Ewing's Sarcoma
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Helicos BioSciences has announced that it has entered into a scientific collaboration with the Children's Oncology Group (COG) in order to interrogate a wide spectrum of genomic variation within various sarcomas, an aggressive type of bone or soft tissue cancer usually found in children and young adults.
New insight into molecular events occurring in primary and metastatic tumor states is critically important to identify new potential therapeutic targets and further improve patient outcomes.
The scientific collaboration is aimed at demonstrating the power and versatility of the Helicos True Single Molecule Sequencing (tSMS)™ technology to measure the DNA sequence, methylation state, and mRNA expression levels of normal, primary and metastatic cell states.
The collaboration is multifaceted and involves a model system chosen by COG, which includes human biological samples collected from a single patient. These samples include a normal bone marrow sample and tumor cell lines derived from a Ewing's sarcoma primary tumor biopsy and the metastasis from the same patient obtained after two cycles of chemotherapy. It is hoped that an in-depth comparison of genomic DNA sequence and RNA expression between the normal tissue, primary tumor, and treatment resistant metastasis will reveal structural and functional genomic changes associated with clinical aggressiveness and treatment resistance.
The collaboration includes a prestigious group of COG scientists, led by Dr. Greg Reaman, professor of pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and chairman of COG, and Dr. Timothy Triche, chair of pathology at the Children's Hospital, Los Angeles and vice chair of translational research at COG.