Watchmaker Genomics introduces TAPS+
TAPS+ enables simultaneous detection of methylation and genetic variants, unlocking new insights for precision oncology and translational research
11 Nov 2025
TAPS+, a next-generation technology that unites genetic and epigenetic readouts from the same DNA molecule
Watchmaker Genomics has launched its TAPS+, a next-generation technology that unites genetic and epigenetic readouts from the same DNA molecule. By capturing multiple biological dimensions in a single assay, TAPS+ delivers a richer, more comprehensive view of tumor biology, with the power to advance applications in translational oncology, early cancer detection, therapy response monitoring, fragmentomics, and minimal residual disease assessment.
Traditional methylation analysis techniques, such as bisulfite treatment, effectively collapse sequence diversity from four bases to three while often damaging DNA. TAPS+ overcomes these limitations with a positive-readout chemistry that gently converts only methylated cytosines to thymines, leaving unmethylated cytosines unchanged. This preserves the natural four-base complexity of DNA, enabling accurate methylation profiling and improved read quality and variant detection across the genome.
Built on Watchmaker’s expertise in enzyme engineering and workflow optimization, TAPS+ streamlines multimodal sequencing into an automation-friendly library preparation completed in just six hours. The chemistry preserves sample integrity, improves CpG coverage, enables somatic variant calling, and reduces false positives, delivering consistent, high-quality results even from low-input, degraded, and clinically relevant samples, such as FFPE tissue and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA).
Among more than 50 early evaluators, Dr. Matija Snuderl, Director of Molecular Pathology at NYU Langone Health, has used TAPS+ to explore combined genomic and epigenomic profiling in tumor analysis.
“With TAPS+, we can directly detect 5mC alongside genetic drivers, even from difficult samples like FFPE or ctDNA from cerebrospinal fluid,” said Dr. Snuderl. “The combination of a unified workflow and improved chemistry delivers the kind of multimodal insight we’ve been waiting for in precision oncology.”
Dr. Snuderl will share results demonstrating the use of TAPS+ for integrated methylation and genomic tumor profiling at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting. His presentation, Integrated Genomic–Epigenetic Profiling of CNS Tumors with TAPS+ for Direct 5mC Detection from ctDNA and FFPE will be on Wednesday, November 12 at 12:00 ET in Room 153C.