Kolkata 15th December 2017: Suraksha Diagnostics Pvt limited introduced Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Technology on clinical diagnostics for the 1st time in Eastern India. The Press Conference witnessed the presence of Dr. Diptendra Kumar Sarkar, Consultant Surgeon, Breast Surgeon, and Surgical Oncologist, Dr. Anupama Gaur, Clinical sequencing Diagnostics Leader South Asia for Thermo fisher, Dr. Disha Banerjee – Scientific Officer, Thermo fisher and Dr. Tridip Chatterjee – Scientist Molecular Biology, Suraksha Diagnostic today at The Grand Oberoi.
Next Generation Sequencing is path-breaking technology of massively parallel DNA and/or RNA sequencing enabling deep sequencing for mutation detection. It is the medical science of tomorrow and essential tool for Personalised Medicine, which has transformed the diagnostic approaches of clinical molecular genetics.
It is also called third generation sequencing. This technology use miniaturized and parallelized platforms for sequencing of millions of short targeted reads per instrument run and produces huge amount of data (genetic information) from the given sample. These data are then analyzed using specific bioinformatics pipelines to generate useful information, specific to a particular patient, enabling the personalized diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. The input sample required for this technology is very low enabling fine needle or FFPE samples to be processed easily.
Today, molecular profiling is a standard technique for classifying tumors, with established guidelines from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
At inception, Suraksha offers well-optimized Next Generation Sequencing based Comprehensive Cancer hotspot Panel, Breast Cancer screening and comprehensive panel (BRCA1, BRCA2), Non-invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPS), Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) & specific gene panel for cardiovascular diseases.
- Comprehensive Cancer Hotspot Panel
It is comprehensive panel for diagnosis of cancers. 50 genes and almost 3000 actionable mutations will be covered under this panel. It has wide ranging applications in multiple tumors such as NSCLC, Colorectal, Breast, Prostate, Head & Neck and many more.
It will provide comprehensive information of the actionable mutations at the start of therapy or if no actionable mutation reported from the preliminary testing.
- Breast Cancer (BRCA 1& 2) Screening and Comprehensive Panel
This panel will screen mutations in tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, which have been implicated in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
- Non-invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPS)
Prenatal screening usually involve amniocentesis, an invasive process in which a needle is inserted through the mother’s abdominal wall, then through the wall of the uterus, and finally into the amniotic sac, with the aid of ultrasound-guidance. A physician punctures the sac in an area away from the fetus and extracts amniotic fluid. This procedure is risky and it may cause the damage or injury to the fetus.
NIPS do not require invasive procedure like amniocentesis. It can be done from mother’s peripheral blood. So, it is as easy as performing any routine test for the mother and it doesn’t cause any harm to the developing fetus. It is the most advanced NGS based test, which can detect abnormalities in developing fetus as early as 10th week of pregnancy with 99.9 % sensitivity and specificity.
- NIPS offers several advantages:
It is a complete non-invasive procedure, only 10 ml blood sample is sufficient enough for the testing
It can detect at the very early stage of pregnancy (10th weeks onwards).
The turn round time for this test is the shortest comparing with conventional pre-natal testing.
0% risk of any fetal injury.
It screens the following most common chromosomal disorders and many others.
Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome)
Trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome)
Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome)
- Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS)
PGS, or preimplantation genetic screening, is a genetic test performed on embryos produced through IVF. PGS gives information about embryos’ genetic health to help your care team select the best embryo for transfer and improve your chance of achieving a successful pregnancy.
PGS works by looking at the amount of genetic material within IVF embryos. This genetic material is housed within structures called chromosomes. Chromosomes are very important for healthy growth and development.
Embryos with the incorrect number of chromosomes (also called aneuploid embryos) typically do not result in a successful pregnancy or may lead to the birth of a child with a genetic condition.
Embryos with the correct number of chromosomes (also called euploid embryos) have a better chance of leading to a successful pregnancy.
PGS identifies embryos with the correct number of chromosomes, so your care team can select the embryo with the best chance of leading to IVF success.
By this test, the embryos, which are generated in vitro can be tested for genetic abnormalities before implantation. So, PGS helps to screen and select best embryos for implantation.
- Panel for cardiovascular diseases
It is a specific panel containing the genes and mutations, reported from worldwide which are known to get altered in cardiovascular and heart diseases. This panel will help in early and accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular and heart diseases.
It offers several advatages:
It is prognostic panel for detecting heart and cardiovascular diseases. So in today’s world if anyone is interested to be sure about the risk or its percenntage, it can detect the same.
This panel will comprise the extensive screening of all the genes and susceptible variations, specific to the development of heart and cardiovascular diseases.
Gradually we will extend the spectrum of our services on this platform technology by offering Neuro & Neuro-mucular panels, Clinical Exome Sequencing panels and many more at an affordable rates and with best possible turn-around time.
In nutshell, we like to shift the paradigm of diagnostics to a new era of molecular diagnostics through this technology of Next Generation sequencing (NGS).
