Cancer Research

Powerful multianalyte liquid biopsy analysis

Have you ever asked yourself: Do we miss (or even waste) genomic and transcriptomic information by considering only one liquid biopsy analyte? How would the picture change if all analytes could be investigated?

Puzzled about which analyte to study in liquid biopsies for cancer research?

You can get a complete picture from liquid biopsies by stabilizing and isolating multiple analytes from the same blood draw to generate robust and reproducible insights.

It might be easier than you think to start isolating circulating  tumor cells (CTCs), cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating RNAs from blood samples. And you don’t have to do it all at once. Storage of samples until you are ready to analyze them increases your flexibility to plan your studies and accelerate your research.
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cfDNA variants and matched CTC gDNA variants: Is it possible and worth analyzing both?

Corinna Keup, Ph.D., University Hospital of Essen, Germany

Liquid biopsy analytes such as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) exhibit great potential for personalized treatment. Since cfDNA and CTCs are considered to give additive information and blood specimens are limited, analysis of cfDNA and CTC in an “all from one tube” format is desired. Corinna presents a targeted DNA-seq workflow for CTC gDNA and cfDNA evaluation from the same blood sample and elucidates the value of cfDNA and CTC variants by comparing variants.

CTCs and their value in multimodality liquid biopsies analysis

Siegfried Hauch, QIAGEN

Circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and extracellular vesicles – what can we learn when analyzing all of these from one blood sample? Discuss with Siegfried the value of multimodality liquid biopsy testing and the findings from a condensed workflow for multiple analyte extraction and analysis from one blood sample.

Listen to the Science talk with Sabine Kasimir-Bauer, University Hospital Essen, joined by Siegfried Hauch, Constanze Kindler and Markus Sprenger-Haussels
Molecular analysis research of circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles and nucleic acids in liquid biopsies

The use of biological fluids such as blood as a non-invasive source of cellular and nucleic acid biomarkers would be an ideal "surrogate tissue" to identify and monitor prognostic and predictive factors that will help in selecting the optimal therapeutic strategy for each individual patient. Sabine Kasimir-Bauer and her team approached this challenge and compared and analyzed, all from one blood sample, RNA profiles enclosed in circulating tumor cells or extracellular vesicles and performed mutational analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma samples (next-generation sequencing) in the follow up of the disease to get insights into their feasibility for therapy stratification and to predict therapeutic options.

mRNA profiling of matched CTCs and EVs: an example for synergy

The analysis of RNA enclosed in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or extracellular vesicles (EVs) may be sensitive enough to detect disease progression earlier than contemporary visual staging methods. Corinna Keup talks about her research study, comparing RNA profiles of CTCs and extracellular vesicles (EVs) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients to get insights about their feasibility for therapy stratification.

Corinna Keup, University Hospital Essen, joined by Siegfried Hauch, Constanze Kindler and Martin Schlumpberger 
Corinna Keup joined by Siegfried Hauch and Markus Storbeck

ccfDNA targeted deep sequencing: new insights into clinical relevance of liquid biopsies

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is described to mirror intra-tumoral heterogeneity and gives insights about clonal evolution for improved therapeutic decisions. Corinna Keup discusses targeted deep sequencing of cfDNA of a hormone receptorpositive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) cohort to examine the prevalence and relevance of variants and dynamics under treatment. Unique molecular identifiers enable the identification of true positive mutations in cfDNA.

  • Sabine Kasimir-Bauer
    Dr. Sabine Kasimir-Bauer is an Associate Professor at the University Hospital of Essen, Germany, where she has held several positions since joining in 1993. She her received Ph.D. in 1993 from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Bochum, Germany. Dr Kasimir-Bauer’s  ongoing studies include expression profiling of CTCs including single cell analysis, compared with the expression on the primary tumor as well as the metastases to evaluate patients for targeted therapies. Besides CTC analysis in blood, the group focusses on circulating extracellular vesicles and circulating, cell-free DNA applying the use of unique molecular identifiers as well as next-generation sequencing. 
    Sabine Kasimir-Bauer
  • Siegfried Hauch
    Dr. Siegfried Hauch joined QIAGEN in 2001 where he has held several positions in Marketing and R&D for the AdnaTest product portfolio. He studied biology at the Albert Einstein University in Ulm and received his Ph.D. in 1997 in plant physiology and molecular biology at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen. Siegfried is Director of CTC Research and Development at QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany.
    Siegfried Hauch
  • Constanze Kindler
    Dr. Constanze Kindler joined QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany in 1993, where she held various positions in Sales and Global Marketing. She received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Münster in 1993. Constanze is currently an Associate Director, Global Product Management, Sample Technologies with a focus on liquid biopsy applications.
    Constanze Kindler
  • Corinna Keup
    Dr. Corinna Keup is a researcher at the University Hospital of Essen, Germany, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the comprehensive molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells extracellular vesicles and cell-free DNA as matched multi-parametric liquid biopsy for therapy management in metastatic breast cancer patients. She studied Biochemistry at the Heinrich-Heinn University in Düsseldorf, Germany.
    Corinna Keup icon
  • Markus Sprenger-Haussels
    Dr. Markus Sprenger-Haussels joined QIAGEN as a laboratory manager in 1999. Since then, he has held various positions within the R&D organization in the Business Areas Molecular Diagnostics and Life Sciences with increasing responsibilities and a focus on liquid biopsy application development. Today he is responsible for planning and execution of the Sample Technology strategy within QIAGEN’s Life Science Business Area and leading the product development department. He studied biology at the University of Cologne, and completed his PhD in Genetics and held post-doctoral positions at Max-Planck Institutes in Cologne and Dortmund, Germany.
    Markus Sprenger-Haussels
  • Martin Schlumpberger
    Martin Schlumpberger is Director, Product Development at QIAGEN focusing on exosomes and circulating, cell-free nucleic acid isolation. Before his current role, he successfully led the development of various RNA isolation products at QIAGEN, including RNeasy FFPE, RNeasy Plus, AllPrep DNA/RNA, miRNeasy and QIAsymphony RNA kits. Prior to joining QIAGEN, Martin worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, with a strong focus on molecular biology and yeast genetics, from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
    Martin Schlumpfberger image
  • Markus Storbeck
    Dr. Markus Storbeck joined QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany in 2017. In his current position as a Scientist in NGS Technology Development, he works on the development of NGS library preparation workflows for Illumina and Ion Torrent sequencing platforms as well as target enrichment technologies. Prior to working for QIAGEN, Markus worked as a post-doc at the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital of Cologne on the discovery of variants causing rare inherited disease. Markus completed his Ph.D. on mRNA splicing factors in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disease in 2014.
    Martin Storbeck image
  • Sabine Kasimir-Bauer
    Sabine Kasimir-Bauer
  • Siegfried Hauch
    Siegfried Hauch
  • Constanze Kindler
    Constanze Kindler
  • Corinna Keup icon
    Corinna Keup
  • Markus Sprenger-Haussels
    Markus Sprenger-Haussels
  • Martin Schlumpfberger image
    Martin Schlumpberger
  • Martin Storbeck image
    Markus Storbeck