
Base Genomics Secures USD 11 Million in Oversubscribed Seed Funding
The company's new technology, TAPS, overcomes these issues and generates significantly more information from a given sample, creating new research opportunities and the clinic.
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CIO Applications Europe | Friday, June 12, 2020

The company's new technology, TAPS, overcomes these issues and generates significantly more information from a given sample, creating new research opportunities and the clinic
FREMONT, CA: Epigenetics firm Base Genomics closed a Seed funding round at USD 11 million led by Oxford Sciences Innovation, with participation from investors with industry expertise in genomics and oncology. The company will use proceeds from the investment round to progress the development of its TAPS technology, initially focusing on developing a blood test for early-stage cancer and minimal residual disease. Base Genomics is led by a highly experienced team of scientists and clinicians.
“The ability to sequence a large amount of high-quality epigenetic information from a simple blood test could unlock a new era of preventative medicine,” said Base Genomics founder and CEO Oliver Waterhouse. “In the future, individuals will not just be sequenced once to determine their largely static genetic code, but will be sequenced repeatedly over time to track dynamic epigenetic changes caused by age, lifestyle, and disease.”
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DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism involved in gene regulation and is one of the most promising biomarkers for detecting cancer through liquid biopsy. The existing industry standard for mapping DNA methylation degrades DNA and reduces sequence complexity, limiting scientific discovery and clinical sensitivity. The company's new technology, TAPS, overcomes these issues and generates significantly more information from a given sample, creating new research opportunities and the clinic.
"In order to realize the potential of liquid biopsies for clinically meaningful diagnosis and monitoring, sensitive detection and precise quantification of circulating tumor DNA is paramount," said Base Genomics CMO Anna Schuh. "Current approaches are not fit for purpose to achieve this, but Base Genomics has developed a game-changing technology which has the potential to make the sensitivity of liquid biopsies a problem of the past."
TAPS, first developed at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Branch at the University of Oxford, is an unusual chemical reaction that converts methylated cytosine to thymine under mild conditions. Unlike the industry-standard technology, bisulfite sequencing, TAPS does not degrade DNA, which means that significantly more DNA is available for sequencing. TAPS also better retain sequence complexity, cutting sequencing costs in half and enabling simultaneous epigenetic and genetic analysis.
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