Methylation profiling of circulating DNA in paediatric brain tumour patients'

To date, attempts at developing liquid biopsies for cancer detection and monitoring have been largely unsuccessful. Most of those strategies have focused on detecting single mutations among circulating cell-free DNA, but such an approach is difficult given that the signal-to-noise ratio for diagnostic mutations is so low in the blood. Our approach is completely different, as it involves pulling down fragments of methylated DNA from various blood compartments via immunoprecipitation, sequencing those methylated fragments, and comparing them to known patterns of methylated DNA in paediatric brain tumours. Since this is looking at overall patterns of methylated DNA rather than searching for specific genetic alterations, it has the potential to succeed where other strategies have failed. Indeed, our published data has demonstrated its potential in adult CNS tumour patients, though it has yet to be tested in paediatric patients. This project therefore aligns with the “Better Tools” component of the Charlie Teo Foundation Research Strategy.