Upcoming Webinar – Next-Generation Sequencing Lessons in Translational Diagnostics

Title – NGS Lessons in Translational Diagnostics: Mining and Migrating Robust Cancer Biomarkers to Unified DNA and RNA NGS Panels
Date – September 10, 2014
Time – 1:00pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, a comprehensive approach for NGS-based biomarker discovery will be introduced, as well as a discussion of the successful migration of these markers to targeted NGS assays using low-quality (FFPE) and low-quantity (FFPE or FNA) tumor biopsies. These markers can be queried using a unified assay approach that reveals cancer-associated DNA and RNA variants from total nucleic acid. Speakers will share lessons learned from building high-performance, multi-modal cancer panels that incorporate functional nucleic acid quantification, highly multiplexed target enrichment, and versatile and complementary variant call pipelines. An integrated approach, such as Asuragens SuraSeq® system, enables reliable detection and quantification of DNA mutations, expression markers, and RNA fusions across multiple disease pathways and cancer types to support retrospective studies, clinical trial assays, and in vitro diagnostic products.

This webinar features Gary Latham, Ph.D., the Vice President of Research & Technology Development at Asuragen and Brian Haynes, Ph.D., a Senior Scientist in Computational Biology at Asuragen. Dr. Latham leads assay development and sample prep technology activities for the Research division and the Translational Diagnostics group, and oversees the companys Bioinformatics team. His accomplishments include the conception and development of Asuragens AmplideX® PCR technology for fragile X syndrome and autism, and multiple innovations in next-generation sequencing that are commercialized under the SuraSeq® brand. Dr. Latham is an author on >30 peer-reviewed publications, and an inventor on 9 issued and more than a dozen pending US and international patents.

Dr. Haynes received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis. His doctoral work focused on the integration of RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq technologies to model transcriptional networks that regulate carcinogenesis and microbial pathogenesis. As a Senior Scientist in the Computational Biology group at Asuragen, Dr. Haynes has spearheaded the work on whole transcriptome (WT) RNA-Seq from challenging clinical sample types such as FFPE, FNA and biofluids. He has applied WT RNA-Seq to discover novel diagnostic markers in thyroid cancer and identify patient response stratification signatures in late phase drug trials. Dr. Haynes has also led the effort of translating these discoveries into clinical assays using targeted RNA-Seq.

To learn more about this webinar and register free, click here.