Yourgene Health presents data demonstrating successful fetal fraction enrichment in NIPT workflows following prolonged blood storage in EDTA tubes
Yourgene Health plc presented data demonstrating that prolonged storage of blood in EDTA tubes is compatible with non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) when using size selection to enrich the fetal fraction.
Scalable and precise DNA size selection following EDTA tube usage offers a cost-efficient alternative to the use of more expensive blood collection tubes (BCTs) and improves next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflows, reducing the risk of failed screening tests for expectant mothers. The data was presented at the 27th International Conference on Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy (ISPD) in Edinburgh, UK on 19th June 2023.
The collaborative study with Tommy’s Charity and St Mary’s NHS Hospital (Manchester, UK) used Yourgene’s IONA Nx NIPT Workflow, a fully validated clinical workflow which utilizes NGS to estimate the trisomy risk in the fetus. The workflow incorporates the unique size-selection capability of the company’s proprietary Ranger Technology to collect DNA library material within a defined size range. This step enriches the fetal-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments in samples by reducing the number of larger maternal DNA fragments. In addition, Yourgene has a patent pending in relation to the EDTA capability that has been filed.
Many NIPT clinics and hospitals take a maternal blood sample with an expensive BCT, such as a Streck tube, and the sample is stable for up to 14 days. However, the data presented has shown the capability to use EDTA tubes, which are commonly used and a significantly lower cost, with proven stability up to 7 days.
