Mission Bio's single-cell DNA and protein capability reveals clonal diversity underlying acute myeloid leukemia

Mission Bio has announced the publication of a study demonstrating the power of its Tapestri Platform^Ⓡ to establish the single-cell genomics atlas of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples, providing unique insight into disease evolution and treatment resistance. Leveraging the Tapestri Platform’s industry-first capabilities, the study is the first to correlate genotype and phenotype at the single-cell level, insight crucial to the development of more impactful treatments. The study, published in Nature Communications, was led by Koichi Takahashi, M.D., Ph.D., at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The clonal diversity and complexity in cancer can impact disease progression, therapy response, and disease recurrence. While bulk sequencing has been used to assess the mutational landscape of AML, it is limited in its inferences on mutation patterns across clones, or cell populations, risking inaccurate interpretations that mischaracterize disease biology and subsequent therapy development. The additional ability to examine the correlation between mutations and protein expression patterns at the single-cell level gives a more complete understanding of cancer, with insight into the clonality that underlies treatment response and resistance.

To obtain an accurate understanding of the clonal architecture of AML, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center used the Tapestri Platform, Tapestri Single-cell DNA Panels, and custom oligo-conjugated antibodies for single-cell DNA analysis and simultaneous single-cell mutation and protein profiling. A total of 154 samples from 123 AML patients were analyzed, and more than 700,000 cells were sequenced. While mutations detected using Tapestri were highly concordant to bulk sequencing data, single-cell multi-omics analysis provided additional insights to mutation co-occurrence and exclusivity patterns, single-cell copy number variants (CNVs), and clonal evolution and mutational histories. The interplay of protein expression patterns with mutations from single cells illuminated a fuller picture of the dynamics behind cancer’s response and resistance to targeted therapies.

“It’s always been a dream for us to study the connection between genotypic and phenotypic diversity among individual AML cells, to understand how they evolve in response to therapies,” said Takahashi. “With the Tapestri Platform, we finally have a tool that empowers this understanding, with enormous implications and potential for clinical management of AML.”

This is the first peer-reviewed publication to showcase the industry-first and only single-cell multi-omics capabilities of the Tapestri Platform. It follows Mission Bio’s recent Series C round of funding and its expansion into biopharma and cell and gene therapy markets.

“It’s been an inspiration to see this pioneering work from Dr. Takahashi, leveraging the Tapestri Platform for simultaneously genotyping and phenotyping single cells,” said Charlie Silver, co-founder and CEO. “We’re honored to power these breakthroughs, and we’re excited that the platform is delivering great impact in assessing therapy response and resistance across multiple cancer indications.”

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