immunoSEQ offers researchers around the world a powerful new tool in understanding adaptive immunity.

SEATTLE, WA, October 17, 2011 – A new study published in The Journal of Immunological Methods demonstrates conclusively that immunoSEQ, Adaptive TCR Corporation’s breakthrough solution for immune profiling, provides a sensitive, reliable method for researchers to accurately evaluate overall T cell receptor repertoire diversity, search for specific clones of interest, and compare repertoires to each other.

The study, published in the journal’s October 10, 2011, issue, was conducted by a team of Adaptive scientists, led by company co-founder Harlan Robins, Ph.D., who is also a faculty member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

“Our experiments illustrate the high degree of sensitivity and reproducibility of the immunoSEQ assay,” explained Dr. Robins. “For the first time, researchers now have a precise, accurate snapshot of what’s going on in the adaptive immune system at any given moment.”

Applications of the technology that will benefit greatly from the increase in sensitivity include monitoring post-transplant immune reconstitution, detection of minimal residual disease, and evaluating the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy treatments.

Details of the Study

The study tests the limits of detection of the immunoSEQ assay, using a strategy whereby T cell clones possessing well-characterized TCRB rearrangements are spiked into a complex background of T cells. The mixes are then sequenced using immunoSEQ’s high-throughput deep sequencing methodology, generating millions of sequence reads that enable researchers to profile the repertoire of TCRβ chains present in each sample. The fraction of sequence reads corresponding to the known spiked in clone is then compared to the expected fraction for a number of samples with clones present at varying levels.

The data suggest that this technique is able to accurately detect a particular clone present at a frequency as low as one cell in 100,000, which is a vast improvement in sensitivity over current methods for characterizing T cell receptor repertoires.

Additionally, the assay is accurate across four orders of magnitude and is, therefore, reliably quantitative whether a clone of interest is rare, or present at a high frequency in the sample.

Finally, the study has shown that the immunoSEQ assay is reproducible by describing results from several replicate experiments.

immunoSEQ: Cloud-Based Solution for Immune Profiling

immunoSEQ provides next-generation DNA sequencing assays for key T and B cell receptor genes, allowing researchers to view the cells of the adaptive immune system with unprecedented depth.

To manage the very large amount of data generated by an immunoSEQ assay, Adaptive developed the ImmunoSEQ Analyzer™, a bioinformatics software suite that provides researchers the essential tools to discover meaningful information. Together, the immunoSEQ assays and software reveals details of the immune system that were historically difficult or impossible to detect.

Chad Robins, CEO and President of Adaptive TCR, added, “Since the analysis part of the solution is cloud-based, meaning the data can be viewed and manipulated from any computer with Internet access, we’re able to offer this technology to researchers around the world.”

As the study highlights, these researchers now have a powerful new tool to aid in the understanding of adaptive immunity

The full text of the study can be found at the website for The Journal of Immunological Methods, click here for Abstract page.

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About Adaptive TCR Corporation and immunoSEQ™

Adaptive TCR Corporation (www.adaptivetcr.com), based in Seattle, WA, is a pioneer in the field of genomic immunology. Its first commercial product, immunoSEQ, uses a proprietary immune profiling assay to analyze T cells and B cells – critical components of the adaptive immune system’s defense against disease – with greater depth and resolution than ever before. This breakthrough technology allows researchers to characterize the complete immune repertoire of a patient or group of patients in search of immunologic biomarkers. The assay is coupled with a state-of-the-art cloud-computing infrastructure that simplifies the interpretation of mass quantities of data in a user-friendly interface, accessible through any standard web browser. The immune profiling technology was invented by Adaptive TCR co-founders, Harlan Robins, Ph.D., and Chris Carlson, Ph.D. at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The company began commercial operations in 2009 under the leadership of Chad Robins, CEO.

For additional information, contact:
Cindy Desmarais, Ph.D.
206-659-0521
cdesmarais@adaptivetcr.com