Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a recalcitrant and serious disease caused by the accumulation of genetic alterations in specific cancer-associated genes. Over the past 30 years, treatment for this disease has progressed slowly. To accelerate progress, one of the strategies is to further perform deep sequencing technologies to interrogate PC genomes, exploring new somatic variants in genes or signaling pathways. And these variants could be potential targets for personalized molecular therapies. Thanks to our established large-scale sequencing platforms, Alfa Cytology can provide flexible and customized PC WGS and bioinformatics analysis services to our global clients.
Overview of cancer whole-genome sequencing (WGS)
Cancer whole-genome sequencing (WGS) using next-generation sequencing (NGS) provides base-pair level analysis of mutations specific to cancer tissue. WGS greatly facilitates the discovery of new cancer-associated variants, including single nucleotide locus variants (SNV), copy number variations, insertions/deletions (indel), and structural variants. Nowadays, WGS has been widely used in cancer research, including PC research. This sequencing technology has revealed many cancer-related variants, such as new cancer driver mutations. There are some advantages of cancer WGS, including,
- Cancer WGS provides the most comprehensive identification of variants, even if they are outside the coding region
- WGS can provide base-pair resolution for the entire cancer genome in a single run
- WGS can provide a comprehensive view of mutations and genomic alterations specific to cancer tissue
- WGS can provide a comprehensive understanding of the changes in tumor-specific DNA samples relative to normal DNA
The service offering at Alfa Cytology
Based on advanced sequencing platforms, we actively support researchers all over the world with their PC genome sequencing needs. We accept not only tumor tissue samples, but also PC cell lines. Our services include experimental design, sample preparation, sequencing, and cancer genome association analysis. We are committed to offering an unprecedented amount of deep WGS data to facilitate PC research. Specifically, our capabilities can help customers achieve the following goals but are not limited to:
- Identification of novel PC susceptibility genes
- Identification of novel PC cancer driver genes
- Identification of new PC DNA repair gene
Our general analysis workflow:
Benefits of our service
- Scalable throughput, flexible sequencing
- Capable of successfully enriching samples with limited amounts of DNA
- A fast, integrated analysis workflow
- The growing database of validated genomes can provide powerful support to researchers in identifying PC mechanisms, drug targets, prognosis and predictive biomarkers.
Cancer WGS helps analyze oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and other risk factors. At Alfa Cytology, our goal is to apply state-of-the-art infrastructure as well as market-leading technology to promote PC research and drug development. Our global customer base includes pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and research institutions. Whatever the size and complexity of your project, please contact us for a professional, competitively priced solution that fits your needs.
References
- Waddell, Nicola, et al. "Whole genomes redefine the mutational landscape of pancreatic cancer." Nature 518.7540 (2015): 495-501.
- Tan, Ming, et al. "Whole genome sequencing identifies rare germline variants enriched in cancer related genes in first degree relatives of familial pancreatic cancer patients." Clinical Genetics 100.5 (2021): 551-562.