Caris Life Sciences Launches Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS) with Novel MI Transcriptome™

New test provides most comprehensive tumor RNA analysis in the industry, including rare fusion detection

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Feb 05, 2019, 06:30 ET

IRVING, Texas, Feb. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences^®, a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, today announced the launch of its newest addition to its comprehensive genomic profiling offering, MI Transcriptome™, which enables Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS). MI Transcriptome uses the capabilities of high-throughput sequencing to gain insight into the RNA profiles of patients' tumors and builds upon Caris' offering of the most comprehensive tumor profiling approach, which assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to ensure patients receive the right therapies.

"WTS with MI Transcriptome provides the most comprehensive and unique RNA analysis available on the market," said David Spetzler, M.S., Ph.D., M.B.A., President and Chief Scientific Officer of Caris Life Sciences. "Our new offering covers all genes, with an average of 60 million reads per patient, to deliver extremely broad coverage and high resolution into the dynamic nature of the transcriptome. Assessing the whole transcriptome allows us to dig deeper into the RNA universe to uncover and detect fusions, splice variants, and expression changes that provide oncologists with more insight and actionable information when determining treatment plans for patients."

RNA-based sequencing analysis is the best method to detect clinically relevant aberrations, because the presence of RNA transcripts ensures that the alterations have been transcribed from DNA to RNA.

MI Transcriptome enables fusion detection, mRNA variant detection, and expression all in one streamlined test. The test identifies novel fusions independent of the breakpoints in DNA, has the ability to detect rare fusion events far better than DNA-based short-read methods, and provides broad coverage of all exons, capturing all possible fusion partners. MI Transcriptome can distinguish between different fusion types and can differentiate fusions from other rearrangements. It also has the potential to discover previously uncharacterized events, which is important when identifying patients who could have strong response to targeted therapy. MI Transcriptome uses the same tissue requirements as Caris' DNA tumor profiling and delivers results in the same less-than-10-days turnaround time.

Caris will submit MI Transcriptome to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the first half of 2019 for Pre-Market Approval (PMA) review to include key companion diagnostic (CDx) biomarkers and claims.

About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences® is a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine through quality and innovation. The company's suite of market-leading molecular profiling offerings assess DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular blueprint that helps physicians and cancer patients make more precise and personalized treatment decisions. Caris is also advancing precision medicine with Next Generation Profiling™ that combines its innovative service offerings, Caris Molecular Intelligence® and ADAPT Biotargeting System™, with its proprietary artificial intelligence analytics engine, DEAN™, to analyze the whole exome, whole transcriptome and complete cancer proteome. This information, coupled with mature clinical outcomes on thousands of patients, provides unmatched molecular solutions for patients, physicians, payers and biopharmaceutical organizations. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.CarisLifeSciences.com or follow us on Twitter (@CarisLS).

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