Abbott has thrown its hat into the minimal/molecular residual disease (MRD) testing ring with the Oct. 26 launch of the whole-genome sequencing-based Oncodetect test.
Moving from whole-exome to WGS for the tumor-informed test for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood during and after cancer treatment increases the number of patient-specific variants it can track from up to 200 in the first-generation test to up to 5,000, according to the company.
The test also uses minor allele enriched sequencing through recognition oligonucleotides (MAESTRO), a tumor DNA enrichment technology developed at the Broad Institute. The company said the combination gives a limit of detection below one part per million, a 30-fold improvement over the first-generation test and greater than 99 percent analytical specificity.
Moreover, MAESTRO helps make WGS cost-efficient enough to offer the test to all new patients with solid tumors, rather than reserving it for select cases.
At the recent European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Madrid, researchers from Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital East presented data from the Beta-CORRECT study in stage II to IV colorectal cancer, suggested that the test offers a 30 percent absolute improvement in sensitivity for recurrence within two years, compared with the first-generation test, at a single post-surgical time point.
That’s in addition to data from a paper published Aug. 21 in Clinical Cancer Research on use of the test to detect recurrence in esophageal cancer and data presented earlier this year at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting on a three-fold improvement in identifying patients with triple-negative breast cancer who later had distant recurrence within five years, compared to the first generation of the test.
Abbott said it has more than 20 ongoing studies of Oncodetect and is working on payer coverage and expanding internationally. The test is performed at Abbott’s CLIA-certified Genomic Health Precision Oncology Laboratory in the Bay Area and has not been approved by the FDA.
More from ESMO 2026
Natera said results from the Phase III VOLGA trial in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, presented at ESMO, linked Signatera Genome ctDNA results to event-free survival. The Signatera Genome test uses technology to phase tumor variants and detect structural variants to lower the noise floor and raise the limit of detection.
Veracyte said Sarah Howlett of University College London presented data showing the company’s Decipher Prostate Genomic Classifier can predict benefit from adding abiraterone to androgen deprivation therapy in men with clinically very high-risk nonmetastatic prostate cancer.
Personalis announced the commercial launch of Real-Time Variant Tracker supplemental results in the NeXT Personal MRD test report. These results identify clinically relevant resistance and therapeutically targetable variants over time. Real-Time Variant Tracker includes variants with established clinical significance, including associations with FDA-approved therapies and recommendations in National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines.
Myriad Genetics released data on its whole-genome sequencing-based Precise MRD assay in resectable colorectal and pancreatic cancers from the MONSTAR-SCREEN-3 study. In patients with resectable colorectal cancer, ctDNA detected one month after surgery was strongly associated with disease progression.
An ESMO committee is developing a framework for evaluating tests that purport to detect multiple cancers early, including Grail’s Galleri test, reports Kelsey Ketchum at GenomeWeb.
“The framework will try to standardize five questions for any test: whether there is a need for the test, whether it measures what it says it measures, whether it detects cancer, whether it helps patients live better, and whether it holds up to rigorous evaluation and scrutiny,” she wrote.
More from ASHG 2026
Well-known large language models aren’t reliable enough to classify variants on their own, according to a study from researchers at Natera at ASHG and reported by Julia Karow of GenomeWeb.
Here’s what presenter Dianne Keen-Kim, a professor of pathology at Stanford University and former senior VP of laboratory affairs and quality at Natera, thought it would take for an AI chatbot to beat out a human expert:
It would need to apply the ACMG/AMP variant classification criteria more consistently than trained expert; it would have to calibrate its own uncertainty ‘instead of guessing with confidence;’ it would need to reduce the burden of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) while remaining fully auditable; and it would have to ‘play to machine strengths.’
A recent business update from Roche cited ASHG data from UCSF showing Axelios single-cell results with 0.99 correlation to standard workflows and reads of about 300 bases, plus GeneDx work suggesting front-line and reflex whole-genome sequencing could be consolidated onto Axelios.
Roche Touts Axelios Progress, Twist Bio Partnership in Q3 Business Update
Roche has achieved roughly one-third of its first-year order target of 100 Axelios 1 sequencing instruments and has partnered with Twist Bioscience on target enrichment assays for the platform.
Parse Biosciences, a Qiagen subsidiary (more on that later), has begun shipping Evercode Max, a modular kit configuration that allows researchers to profile up to 2.5 times as many cells across up to twice as many samples, with cost per sample down as much as 58 percent.
“Flexible is how I’d describe Evercode Max,” said Nicholas Jendzjowsky, a researcher at The Lundquist Institute. “For our planned experiments, we could essentially do two experiments for the price of one.”
More news out of ASHG in last week’s Ion Genomics newsletter:
For Genomics Companies, a Silver Lining in the Cloud: Newsletter Oct. 21
Over the last month, Illumina, Pacific Biosciences, and 10x Genomics have all announced new software projects that will bring genomic data analysis and sharing to cloud computing, and the rise of AI is driving this shift in multiple ways.
Illumina launched the BioInsight single-sign on digital products platform, including DRAGEN Ultra.
Pacific Biosciences signed a partnership with Verily Health to create a cloud-based platform for data analysis and sharing.
Ultima Genomics launched 150 bp paired-end sequencing on its UG200 sequencer and released its Solaris 2.0 Max sequencing consumables, which double output per wafer to up to 20 billion reads. The changes enable a $60 human genome at 30X coverage, the company said.
UK Biobank 80K-Sample Immune Study Taps Ultima Sequencing, BD Single-Cell Platform
The UK Biobank is collaborating with IMU Biosciences, Ultima Genomics, and Waters on a multiomics immune profiling project that will analyze at least 80,000 samples.
Complete Genomics showed off expanded sequencing capabilities of its CoolMPS 600 kit and DNBSEQ T7+ instrument.
Other Genomics News
Qiagen Agrees to Be Taken Private in $12.1B Deal
Qiagen and Swedish private equity firm EQT have agreed to an all-cash takeover that values Qiagen at approximately €10.8 billion ($12.1 billion), including about $1.1 billion in debt.
Bristol Myers Squibb Licenses Tempus AI Oncology Data
Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a five-year deal to license multimodal oncology data from Tempus AI.
MGI Tech Q3 Revenues Rise 2 Percent
MGI Tech reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of 783.7 million yuan ($117.6 million), up 2 percent from 771.0 million yuan in Q3 2025, according to a company report filed Oct. 24 with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The report did not provide a revenue segment breakdown.
Other Science News
Scientific institutions across Europe, including the German Research Foundation DFG, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research are joining the European Commission to support a preprint-first and public peer review publishing model.
“By early November, the European Commission will roll out an expanded version of its Open Research Europe (ORE) platform, which uses a ‘publish, review, curate’ model. In this approach, preprints are posted, reviewed openly — with the identity of the reviewers and their reports made public — then flagged as ‘peer reviewed’ on the same platform,” reports Holly Else in Nature.
For genomics researchers, the shift could accelerate access to methods papers and large dataset analyses that currently sit in peer-review limbo for months.
My Omics Reading List
Kim et al. “circMAC: microRNA-conditioned binding-site localization on circular RNA isoforms.” Briefings in Bioinformatics. Sept. 9, 2026.
CircMAC is an AI tool developed by researchers at South Korea’s Pusan National University, to predict where microRNAs may bind within full-length circular RNA molecules at nucleotide resolution. The tool could help researchers identify candidate binding regions for further experimental investigation.
“The key advance is moving beyond asking whether a circRNA and miRNA interact to asking where that interaction is likely to occur,” senior author Giltae Song said in an email.
Ion Genomics News
Not a real update, but just a friendly reminder that if you are eligible to vote in the US, please do so before the next newsletter comes out!