Agena, N-of-One Partner on Cancer Genomic Data Interpretation

Agena Bioscience said today it will partner with N-of-One to offer interpretation of cancer genomic data generated by Agena’s MassARRAY system.

The partnership—whose value was not disclosed—is designed to support expansion of Agena’s MassARRAY Insights™ reporting network, a collaboration between Agena and molecular analysis platform providers designed to aid in interpretation by linking the MassARRAY mass spectrometer with the providers’ analysis software.

N-of-One becomes the fifth provider in the reporting network; the other four are Molecular Health, Molecular Match, Pathagility, and Translational Software.

“MassARRAY Insights is part of Agena Bioscience's continued effort to support our CLIA-High Complexity Certified lab customers who are tackling the challenges presented in molecular diagnostics,” Agena CEO Pete Dansky said in a statement. “We are happy to partner with an industry leader like N-of-One to help bring our lab clients an important component that nicely follows the value of our test: an evidence-based, clinically actionable report.”

N-of-One is a molecular decision support company that has partnered with leading hospital systems, cancer centers, and commercial labs worldwide. The company says its solutions have provided therapeutic options, including clinical trials, for tens of thousands of patient cases across hundreds of cancer types.

“With technology like Agena's MassARRAY, clinicians have the ability to develop tests that provide robust data. With our data interpretation expertise, we can guide pathologists and oncologists to more precise and tailored cancer treatments than ever before,” added N-of-One CEO Chris Cournoyer.

The MassARRAY System is a research-use-only, mass spectrometry-based platform for high-throughput genetic analysis designed to enable high-throughput, accurate detection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions and deletions (INDELs), and copy number variations (CNV) across a variety of genetic applications.

MassARRAY is a nonfluorescent detection platform using mass spectrometry to accurately measure PCR-derived amplicons. A variety of sample types can be tested, including FFPE (formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded), blood plasma, and whole genome amplified DNA. According to Agena, the platform is flexible and scalable enough to facilitate easy development of custom panels and validation across large numbers of samples.

The platform is used in research fields that include cancer profiling for solid tumors and liquid biopsies, inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, agricultural genomics, and clinical research.