At the recently-concluded 2018 AMP Meeting, researchers at the New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) and Weill Cornell Medical Center (WCMC) presented a poster1 on the validation of an Oncomine™ cell-free DNA Lung Assay using ctDNA NGS standards developed by SeraCare (Seraseq® ctDNA v2 Reference Materials),2

In a recent post, we discussed key considerations for designing a robust next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based lung cancer assay. Putting those plans into action in the development phase brings forth a new set of challenges. Through our experience developing NGS reference materials and the relationships we’ve built with assay developers of all stripes, we’ve identified those important factors and ways to navigate them. But before you begin designing and optimizing your assay, you should become very familiar with binomial and Poisson distributions and their use because the outcome of many analytical steps can be modeled and explained with them.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) allows deeper insights than ever before into the human genome and a host of diseases and conditions. So it makes sense that there is a worldwide movement to employ NGS in a growing number of applications. But as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.