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Oxford spin-out Base Genomics is acquired by early cancer detection company Exact Sciences.

Biotechnology company, Base Genomics, launched in June 2020 based on Oxford’s Dr Chunxiao Song’s innovative TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS) technology. This week, Base Genomics was bought out by Exact Sciences for $410 million.

TAPS is a new method for measuring DNA methylation, a chemical modification on cytosine bases. DNA methylation is frequently altered in cancer and these altered DNA methylation levels are preserved in the small amounts of DNA that are released into the blood from cancer cells. With its enhanced sensitivity over the standard methodology for measuring DNA methylation, TAPS has great potential as the basis for a multi-cancer blood test.

“This acquisition by Exact Sciences will enable us to accelerate the clinical and commercial development of Base Genomics and unlock a new era for early cancer detection. This is a big step forwards,” said Base Genomics co-founder and chemistry lead, Dr Yibin Liu, who co-invented the technology while a post-doc at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford Branch.

Exact Sciences will continue to build on the Base Genomics team in Oxford, creating a world-leading research centre for early stage cancer detection.

“I am thrilled that the TAPS technology developed in my lab has received this level of investment. We can now proceed much more rapidly to fully leverage the power of this technology for cancer detection and patient benefit,” said Dr Chunxiao Song, Assistant Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford Branch and Base Genomics co-founder.

Chunxiao Song’s research has received funding from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. TAPS is continuing to be developed in Chunxiao’s lab, for example it was recently adapted for long-read sequencing, to further its application to other fields of biomedical research.