Industry News: Roche to Advance Translational Research for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Diagnostics

Roche has announced the acquisition of Signature Diagnostics AG (Signature), a privately held company based in Potsdam, Germany. Signature is a translational oncology and genomics company that develops large blood plasma and tissue biobanks in multiple cancers, including colorectal and lung, which are constructed from multicenter prospective clinical studies.

Signature uses the samples from its biobanks along with accompanying clinical progression and genetic data to develop and validate circulating cell free DNA (cfDNA) tests¹ which have the potential to advance non-invasive treatment response monitoring for patients with cancer.

“Biobanks play an important role in uncovering the cause or origin of disease such as cancer which is important in translational research and the development of personalized therapies for patients,” said Roland Diggelmann, COO, Roche Diagnostics. “Signature represents a unique bridge between high value cancer biobanks and NGS assay development. Roche plans to leverage Signature’s expertise in both of these areas to accelerate the development of targeted NGS-based diagnostics in the future. Biobanks can also be used for biomarker discovery and hypothesis testing with Pharma.”

“We are very pleased Roche recognizes the importance of high-quality longitudinal cancer biobanks for the development of novel NGS-based diagnostics,” says André Rosenthal, Ph.D. and CEO of Signature. “Joining forces with Roche is very exciting as it will allow us to further develop our NGS assays for sequencing tests using cfDNA which may advance the development of non-invasive treatment response monitoring for cancer patients.”

Signature will be integrated into Roche Sequencing Unit and will continue to focus on expanding its innovative genomic signature portfolio. 


1 Signature products are For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.