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Stilla’s webinar in collaboration with Genomeweb & the Blood Transfusion Service of Zürich, Tuesday 20th of October 2020

Crystal Digital PCR™ for Accurate Chimerism Monitoring after Stem Cell Transplantation by Elise Gourri (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) & Viviane Sternkopf (Stilla Technologies)

Speakers’s Bio

Elise Gourri, MSc.
Scientist
Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Flow Cytometry (MOC), Blood Transfusion Service Zurich, Swiss Red Cross

Elise completed a master degree in Bioengineering at EPFL (Switzerland). For six years she has worked as a scientist at the Blood Transfusion Service Zurich, one of the leading centers for Transfusion Medicine in Switzerland. Under the supervision of Dr. rer. nat. Stefan Meyer, Elise is responsible for the dPCR platform. She is also involved in the molecular diagnostics of blood groups of blood donors and patients. Since its implementation in the laboratory in 2015, the team of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics has used dPCR to develop novel methods for genetic diagnostics in transfusion and transplantation medicine.

Viviane Sternkopf
Application Specialist
Stilla Technologies

Viviane received her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Greifswald. For more than 10 years she supported different molecular diagnostic products as a field and subject matter expert and customer trainer. Viviane joined Stilla technologies in March 2019 and now works as Field Application Scientist in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. She supports customers with system installations, training, and lab implementation of Crystal Digital PCR as a multiplexing approach to nucleic acid detection.

Abstract

This webinar will discuss a new method that relies on Crystal digital PCR from Stilla Technologies to monitor chimerism in patients after stem cell transplantation, which is a key part of surveillance for impending clinical relapse.

The new method relies on target detection by Stilla’s Crystal dPCR with the naica® system. The process allows for single nucleotide variant detection in up to 20,000 partitions per reaction, with up to 48 reactions per run.

Elise Gourri of the Blood Transfusion Service Zurich will discuss the validation and implementation of the naica® system for routine chimerism monitoring.

Her presentation will discuss how the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Flow Cytometry confirmed the reliability of the dPCR platform on samples from previously monitored patients as well as external quality assessment samples. They could provide reproducible quantification of the minor allele, even below 0.25 percent, and, notably, the clinically required 0.5 percent minor allele sensitivity was achieved with only 5 ng of input DNA.

The webinar will detail the department’s conclusion that the naica® system is fast, convenient, and highly accurate.