Immuno-Oncology Research

connections bring meaning to cancer testing
Genomic tools for characterizing tumors

Immuno-oncology is an emerging field that has taken great strides in the fight against cancer, supported by a better understanding of how tumors evade the natural immune response. Leading immuno-oncology researchers are leveraging next-generation sequencing (NGS) to study immunotherapy response factors, biomarkers, and genomics to improve personalized immunotherapy research.

Immuno-oncology research into the mechanisms tumors use to evade the immune response has led to promising therapeutic targets. These therapies boost the immune system's ability to target cancer or limit the tumor’s ability to evade the immune response. In addition, NGS can help identify which pathways are activated in the tumor environment and how they are involved in processes such as cancer cell proliferation, survival, invasion, and metastasis.

image of pdf next generation cancer treatment

Immunotherapy: The next generation of cancer treatment

This application note highlights recent advances in immuno-oncology, including evolving trends, needs of researchers, and genomic technologies available to aid in this rapidly advancing field.

Download immunotherapy application note

NGS-based immuno-oncology research solutions

Tumor microenvironment and immune composition

NGS is a powerful tool that can provide a detailed analysis of the cancer genome. It can also efficiently assess tumor microenvironments in real-time with high sensitivity to monitor immune marker expression in response to tumor growth or treatment. NGS can characterize the immune cell repertoire, identify various cell populations in the microenvironment, and comprehensively quantify gene expression in thousands of targets simultaneously.

Tumor mutational burden and neoantigen prediction

NGS can also help researchers identify neoantigens, study innovative therapies to boost the immune response, and understand how genetic variation can influence their efficacy. NGS has also enabled the predictive selection of novel tumor antigens that can be applied to elicit a tumor-specific response.

Learn more about tumor mutational burden

Spatial transcriptomics for tumor microenvironment analysis

Spatial transcriptomics provides a topographical arrangement of gene expression patterns mapped onto tissue sections to link structure and activity. This capability allows researchers to articulate biological interactions at the cellular level to gain novel insights into complex tissues, such as tumor microenvironments.

Learn more about spatial transcriptomics

Gut microbial composition in cancer

NGS can be used to study the influence of host-microbiome interactions on cancer development, progression, and treatment efficacy. NGS can profile microbial communities in different contexts, which is critical for identifying species or conditions that may be targeted for developing new therapeutic approaches to cancer.

Single-cell analysis in tumor microenvironments

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) is being increasingly used to investigate the transcriptomic profile of cancers and tumor microenvironments at single-cell resolution. Immune cell studies, in combination with single-cell transcriptomics, has been applied to understand the key factors in cancer immunosurveillance and resistance to immunotherapy.

Learn more about single-cell RNA sequencing

Clinical research relevance
  Neoantigen,
mutational burden
Expression
profiling
Microbiome (16S)
sequencing
TCR/BCRa
profiling
Epigenetic
profiling
Therapeutic applications          
Checkpoint inhibitors          
Vaccines          
Adoptive cell therapy          
Prognostics          
Microbiome          
Immune repertoire          
Monitoring          

  - Key application
a TCR, T-cell receptor; BCR, B-cell receptor

image of pdf next generation cancer treatment

Multiomics in oncology research—Multiple layers of information provide novel insights into tumor biology that cannot be resolved by single omics studies alone.

Multiomic approaches in immuno-oncology research

Multiomic studies integrate high-dimensional data sets from genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, metagenomic, and proteomic approaches, often using computational and network biology to interpret the vast amounts of data generated by these techniques. Applying multiomics to clinical research data amplifies the discovery power of existing omics methodologies to uncover new biomarkers and immunotherapy targets.

In addition, multiomic approaches can provide a comprehensive view of the molecular profile of the tumor and microenvironment.

Learn more about multiomics

cancer research methods guide

Cancer Research Methods Guide

The Cancer Research Methods Guide is a 40+ page comprehensive resource with simple, comprehensive workflows for a broad range of cancer research applications. This guide includes single-cell sequencing, spatial sequencing, methylation profiling, multiomics, cell-free RNA sequencing, and more.

Download free guide

Immuno-oncology resources

Transforming oncology with genomics

Researchers from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and United Health Network share how knowing more about cancer biology through genomic studies enables universities and health systems to advance the fight against cancer.

Enabling IR-Seq for cancer research

This downloadable poster outlines a new scalable tool for cancer research to enable full-length V(D)J immune-repertoire sequencing (IR-Seq).

TruSight Oncology products

Explore our solutions to enable comprehensive genomic profiling from tissue to liquid biopsy samples.

Related resources

Cancer research overview

Our sequencing and microarray technologies support a broad range of cancer genomics research applications, from DNA to RNA analysis, epigenetics, and more.

Cancer research applications

Explore the different applications within cancer research, including liquid biopsy research, single-cell analysis, and epigenetics.

Genomics products for cancer research

Kits and reagents to help researchers identify genomic changes in cancer.

References