QIAGEN's GeneReader Detects Cancer-Causing Mutations

Researchers across the world see promise in the sample-to-insight solutions company QIAGEN and its GeneReader NGS System’s ability to detect cancer-causing mutations.

Four posters detailing the Netherlands-based organization’s technology will be unveiled this week at the Association for Molecular Pathology 2017 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. Together, according to QIAGEN, the reports highlight the GeneReader’s “outstanding analytical performance and ease of use.” Of 500 papers slated for presentation at the gathering, roughly 10% examine the company’s solutions for molecular testing.

“QIAGEN is rapidly expanding our content menu with ultra-accurate gene panels for breast and lung cancer, as well as driving the launch of our very successful customized panels and thereby offering access to an unlimited content offering,” Kai te Katt, PhD, vice president and head of QIAGEN’s oncology franchise in the molecular diagnostics business area, said in a statement.

The GeneReader NGS System helps derive insights from samples. The company touts it as the world’s first complete system of its kind for next-generation sequencing. The QIAGEN vice president said the product “provides everything a lab needs” to perform the task and is nimble enough to “analyze molecular variants across all major sample types.”

Researchers analyzed GeneReader and found a number of promising results. Here they are.

Investigators at Austria’s Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch “observed 100% agreement” between the technology and 2 other methods when they tested 50 tissue samples and 20 liquid biopsies for mutations in various genes. In their poster, the researchers said, the business’s software provided “an easy tool for data analysis, variant interpretation, and quality control.” They also noted that GeneReader is “easy to implement” and “accessible” for labs.

Quiron Dexeus University Hospital researchers in Barcelona, Spain, tested GeneReader and the AIT panel alongside 2 other methods, finding 100% concordance in 43 reference samples and 89.3% in 86 liquid biopsies.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Semmelwis University researchers in Budapest, Hungary, showed how GeneReader can detect inherited BRCA mutations in patients with a rare cancer.

QIAGEN researchers produced results that suggest their QIAact BRCA ½ Advanced Panel can “accurately and efficiently detect all possible actionable DNA mutations” in 3 breast cancer suppressor genes.

In addition to the posters, QIAGEN technologies are slated for display at the Utah conference. The company plans to demonstrate its GeneReader NGS System, modular QIAsymphony automation system, and “universal solutions” for liquid biopsy and other samples. For a schedule, click here.

QIAGEN has been on the move in recent months, broadcasting the strengths of its insight solutions, bioinformatics software, and automation programs designed to plug these technologies into existing workflows.

It has also forged high-impact partnerships. In October, for instance, the company announced plans to team up with Centogene, a firm that uses whole genome sequencing to develop diagnoses of rare diseases. That union gave QIAGEN access to CentMD, a phenotype and genotype database containing more than 4.5 million variants from across the globe.

Right now, QIAGEN’s GeneReader NGS System is marked only for research. But the company has continued to develop its capabilities this year, adding molecular content and customized panels.

^{Image courtesy: QIAGEN, WikiMedia Commons}