Bionano Genomics Solidifies its Entry into Solid Tumor Analysis with Launch of New Kit and Protocol that Significantly Simplify Tissue and Solid Tumor Analysis

Bionano’s new Bionano Prep SP Tissue and Tumor Kit enables routine analysis of cancer biopsies and animal tissue expanding its addressable market to include solid tumors and model genomes commonly studied in pharmaceutical research and development

SAN DIEGO, July 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO), today announced that it has launched the new Bionano Prep^TM SP Tissue and Tumor Kit, a DNA isolation kit developed expressly for analysis of tumors and tissue with Bionano’s Saphyr system. The kit has been designed to simplify isolation of Ultra High Molecular Weight (UHMW) DNA from a variety of solid tumors and tissue types. The new kit and protocol for the Saphyr system make the analysis of genomic rearrangements in cancer and model genomes that are of interest in pharmaceutical development simpler and more feasible than currently available methods. 

The new Bionano Prep SP Tissue and Tumor Kit allows for the consistent isolation of UHMW DNA in less than six hours from what is traditionally a difficult and highly complex sample type. Human and animal tissues and tumors vary widely and depending on the organ of origin, can contain high levels of fats or carbohydrates that can compromise the quality of the sequencing or optical mapping data. The new kit and related protocol enable consistent isolation of high quality UHMW DNA from as little as 5 mg of fresh or frozen tissue and tumor material, facilitating routine analyses from small amounts of starting material, such as those likely to be obtained from a needle aspirate. The new kit was successfully validated on a wide variety of tumors and tissues (bladder, lung, liver, kidney, colon, breast, prostate, brain, thyroid, ovary, testes and uterus).

DNA isolated with the kit is of unprecedented length, resulting in isolation of molecules up to megabase lengths. Genome imaging on the Saphyr system takes advantage of these extremely long molecules to detect all types of structural variants genome-wide in an unbiased fashion. In a single run, Saphyr can image enough molecules to span over 1,500x coverage of a human genome. This depth of coverage enables the detection of structural variants present in as little as 1% variant allele fraction. Altogether, the new kit for isolation of DNA from tissue and tumor, the high-throughput automated genome imaging on Saphyr, and the fully automated variant calling form a simplified, streamlined workflow for variant analysis from tissues and tumors.