Immuno-oncology, biomarker discovery and validation

Industries · Immuno-oncology

Immuno-oncology

Multi-omics profiling of tumors and their microenvironment to identify biomarkers of treatment response, resistance and patient stratification.

A tumor dataset does not answer a clinical question on its own. Which patients respond to checkpoint blockade, what separates their microenvironment from everyone else’s, and whether that signature survives the next cohort: this is the work GenXMap’s computational team takes on.

Predictive Biomarker Discovery & Validation Programme

A designed programme rather than an analysis order: GenXMap integrates genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and tumor-microenvironment data to identify molecular signatures associated with treatment response or resistance and, where an independent cohort is available, tests those signatures in data they were not derived from.

The work starts before the analysis: defining which molecular layers are needed to answer the biological question, selecting appropriate references, determining how cohorts will be integrated, and separating discovery from validation from the outset.

The questions we take on

How the analysis runs

Mutational profiling

Somatic calling from WGS or WES; burden, signatures and copy number summarised per sample and arm.

Targeted validation

Selected variants, transcripts and proteins confirmed by targeted sequencing, qPCR/RT-qPCR/dPCR or Olink, tracked across timepoints.

Differential expression

Gene- and pathway-level differences between conditions from bulk RNA-seq, with immune programmes scored alongside.

Immune deconvolution

Cell-type composition from bulk RNA-seq, cross-checked against single-cell references where available.

Single-cell and spatial annotation (Transcriptomics 360 programme)

Clustering, immune subtype annotation and differential abundance; spatial data used to localise signals and interpret the bulk result.

Proteomic profiling

TIMS-TOF MS quantified and tested for differential abundance, matched against the transcriptomic result.

Liquid-biopsy monitoring

cfDNA and cfRNA signals per timepoint, compared with tissue findings.

Cohort integration

Batch-corrected integration across cohorts and platforms, so a cohort accumulates instead of restarting; pipelines versioned per study.

Signature discovery and validation

Responder versus non-responder signatures across data layers, cross-checked on independent datasets before they leave the building.

Modelling

Models linking signature to arm and outcome; parameters, thresholds and versions recorded per study.

What the report contains

Methods

Exact tool versions, parameters, references and thresholds for every step, so the analysis can be rerun as it was.

QC

Sample- and cohort-level quality metrics across sequencing, proteomic and liquid-biopsy layers, with exclusions stated and justified.

Genomic results

Mutation, burden and copy-number summaries per sample and arm; validated variants with confirmation status and quantification.

Transcriptomic and immune results

Differential expression, pathway and immune-programme scores; cell-type composition estimates with single-cell and spatial annotation where run.

Proteomic results

Differentially abundant proteins, matched against the transcriptomic findings.

Liquid-biopsy results

cfDNA / cfRNA signals per timepoint, set against tissue findings.

Signatures and models

Candidate response and resistance signatures, their performance on independent cohorts, and the models linking them to arm and outcome, with parameters and thresholds recorded.

Interpretation

Written against the biological question the study started from, stating what the data support and what they do not.

Data package

Processed matrices, result tables, versioned pipelines and figures, delivered for audit or reproduction by a third party.

From Data to Biological Evidence

The laboratory work behind these analyses runs on OMICS4, GenXMap’s platform site, with sample requirements, logistics and turnaround defined for each study.

But the analysis does not have to start in our laboratory.

We also work with data generated elsewhere. Existing transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbiome or extracellular-vesicle datasets , from an earlier study, an internal R&D programme or another provider, can be analysed and integrated on their own terms.

What determines the analysis is the biological question, the study design and the metadata available, not who generated the data or where the sequencing was performed.

Where multiple omics layers are available, we integrate them to identify converging biological signals, distinguish robust effects from technical or donor variability, and build a coherent evidence package around the claim.

The data may come from different platforms, providers or experiments. The biological question remains the starting point.

Explore the platforms on OMICS4

Which cells moved, and where they were

In immuno-oncology, knowing that expression changed is rarely enough. You need to know which immune subsets moved, and where they sit relative to the tumour. That is three modalities, not one: bulk RNA-seq on our own platforms, single-cell with Parean Biotechnologies in Saint-Malo, and spatial transcriptomics with Explicyte, a precision oncology and immuno-oncology CRO in Bordeaux. Run as one programme, on one design and one sample set, they are read together rather than reconciled afterwards.

GenXMap is also joining the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster, and is joining the Marseille Immunology Biocluster. For a programme that needs a specific cohort or a clinical collaborator, that is the difference between a conversation and a search.

ExplicyteParean Biotechnologies
See the 360° transcriptomics offering

Case studies for this industry are in preparation: get in touch to discuss a project directly.

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