Prof. Andreas Weinhaeusel, PhD
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
Epigenomics FOR improving minimal invasive cancer diagnostics
Related keywords: minimal invasive cancer diagnostics, biomarker development, DNA methylation, liquid biopsy
The minimal invasiveness of diagnostic procedures is a prerequisite to enable broad clinical application such as early detection, patient stratification and therapy monitoring.
In the last decade, epigenome-wide DNA methylation changes in many cancer types have been elucidated. In addition, it was shown that circulating tumor DNA in cell-free DNA from plasma is particularly well suited to improve diagnostics using modern, highly sensitive PCR and DNA-sequencing methods. We have developed pipelines for biomarker development that combine streamlined tools for omics detection, bioinformatics, confirmation and validation. We will illustrate our strategy to improve cancer diagnostics with our development of colon and lung cancer methylation markers for different diagnostic situations.
In addition, we will give you an overview of the potential and current status of DNA methylation-based diagnostics as well as the potential of liquid biopsy-based diagnostics, which will enable major improvements in clinical diagnostics in the near future.
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