MassARRAY® System for Somatic Mutation Screening
Designing custom assays for highly sensitive and accurate analysis
While the OncoCarta™ Panel features a comprehensive set of somatic mutations suitable for many projects, researchers may have interests beyond this panel. These interests could include a more focused screen with a fewer mutations or genes, or the evaluation of new markers. The MassARRAY system offers a highly flexible method for evaluating a wide variety and number of somatic mutations1.
Due to the small percentage of somatic mutations within a sample, a systematic approach to assay design is necessary to improve the performance and sensitivity of mutation detection. Sequenom’s application noteprovides the important guidelines required for custom assay design, and have been used in the development of the OncoCarta Panel. These guidelines reduce the likelihood of overlapping signals, and improve low abundant signal detection. Key design criteria include:
- Mass spacing and positioning of alleles for higher sensitivity
- Reducing the effects of adduct contribution in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry
- Thoughtful multiplexing of assays
Using these guidelines, researchers can readily design custom somatic mutation assays to any gene or genomic region of interest. In addition, the application note discusses methods for assay validation including testing with control samples or synthetic templates.
References
- Pearce, M. and Ehrich, M. Somatic Mutation Analysis in Tumor Samples using the Sequenom MassARRAY® System. Nature Methods, May 2010.
Note: The MassARRAY platform, OncoCarta, iPLEX, iSEQ, EpiTYPER and MelaCarta are for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. |