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Bionano Genomics Announces Publication of Study Demonstrating Utility of OGM as Part of a Comprehensive Workflow for Quality Evaluation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO), today announced the publication of a study demonstrating the utility of
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[{"type":"text","content":"SAN DIEGO, Sept. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO), today announced the publication of a study demonstrating the utility of optical genome mapping (OGM) as part of a workflow to evaluate the quality of hypoimmunogenic induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) which could be used in regenerative medicine. This research provides scientific and practical support for OGM’s ability to detect cryptic and balanced structural variants (SVs) in CRISPR-edited cells, some of which were not detected by karyotyping, and which may impact the genomic integrity of iPSCs. The expansion of iPSC-mediated cell therapy faces risks due to immune rejection caused by mismatches of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) between donor and recipient. Researchers in this study developed a new strategy for the reduction of immune rejection using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to selectively knock out the HLA-A and HLA-B genes while retaining HLA-C and other non-classical HLAs. In order to optimize the selection of CRISPR-Cas9 edited iPSC subclones, researchers in the study performed a stringent genomic integrity assessment using whole-genome sequencing (WGS), karyotyping (KT) and OGM. In the study, OGM matched the karyotype and genome sequencing findings of deletions and translocations and identified complicated genomic rearrangements missed by other methods. OGM was also able to detect distinctive mutations in iPSCs that researchers could then avoid using. “Bionano is gratified to see research that demonstrates OGM’s utility to the field of regenerative medicine. This paper outlines a rigorous assessment of genomic integrity that could be applied to iPSCs that might eventually be used to restore functionally impaired tissues or organs. We are pleased that the authors included OGM as part of the development of new methods to analyze the quality of genome-edited cells. We believe this strategy could be advantageous not only for the simplification of the production process but also for the reduction of unintended genomic mutations at off-target sites or unexpected large deletions at on-target sites that may be caused by effects of guide RNA (gRNAs),” commented Erik Holmlin, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Bionano Genomics. The paper is available at: https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/methods/fulltext/S2329-0501(22)0...