Benzinga | Oct 13, 2021 01:38PM EDT

Twist Bioscience, Broad Institute Report Creation Of Custom Whole Exome Target Enrichment Panel For Clinical Research

- Twist Bioscience to Offer Clinically Validated, Expert-Designed Exome Panel that Enriches Loci Relevant to Cancer, Rare and Inherited Diseases -

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced an agreement with the Broad Institute for the distribution of a customized next-generation sequencing (NGS) target enrichment exome panel designed for the identification and research of a wide range of cancer, rare and inherited disease genes from patient samples. Twist will market this expert-developed exome panel as the Twist Alliance Clinical Research Exome.

The Twist Alliance Clinical Research Exome helps support the Broad Institute Genomics Platform and was designed using validated data from clinical patient samples. The panel leverages Twist's flexible NGS platform to easily and quickly customize content, resulting in a comprehensive survey of the exome with supplemental enrichment of clinically relevant areas of the genome related to cancer as well as rare and inherited diseases. By leveraging the best-in-class uniformity of Twist NGS probes, the assay enables a per sample cost and throughput efficiency that Broad has already leveraged to process more than 250,000 samples to date, keeping it on the leading edge of exome sequencing.

"Exome sequencing has long been a key part of our sequencing efforts for large cancer and germline research studies. Our development with Twist has leveraged many of our learnings on the technical side and pulls in knowledge from collaborating investigators to provide an enhanced exome that will increasingly span both research and clinical applications in which results are returned to patients" said Stacey Gabriel, senior director of the Broad Institute Genomics Platform.

The Twist Alliance Clinical Research Exome will be available for customers in mid-October. The full design of this panel includes the Twist Core exome, the mitochondrial genome, and additional validated coding and non-exonic regions of interest such as the ACMG73 genes, supplemental coverage of regions from OMIM and COSMIC, and specific Broad-defined targets. To see Broad's Director of Genomics Research and Development Brendan Blumenstiel presenting data on the panel, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_9Bt8sBuaY.

"Typically, in cancer research studies, there is a great need to focus sequencing efforts on particular genes or mutations but often with a small number of samples available. Leveraging the Broad's vast expertise, together we have developed a specialized custom panel that enables deeper sequencing, producing validated genetic variants that could be used for therapeutic intervention," said Emily M. Leproust, PhD, chief executive officer and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. "We are thrilled to bring this important tool to our customers to drive deep insights into research and potentially therapeutic development."