A new liquid biopsy technology called Bridge Capture may help improve cancer diagnostics and monitoring by addressing several challenges in current testing methods. Researchers from Genomill Health Inc., the University of Turku, and TYKS Turku University Hospital in Finland have benchmarked this approach against two leading commercial assays. Their findings were published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
Liquid biopsies are increasingly used instead of tissue samples for cancer diagnostics because they are less invasive and can provide a broad overview of tumor genetics. However, existing technologies often struggle to balance sensitivity, coverage, and workflow simplicity.
Bridge Capture is a targeted next-generation sequencing method developed to address these limitations. In the study, researchers tested its performance using colorectal cancer samples designed to mimic circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) at various frequencies. They compared Bridge Capture with Archer LIQUIDPlex and Illumina AmpliSeq CHPv2 assays. According to the results, Bridge Capture showed strong agreement with both commercial tests while also detecting lower variant allele frequencies, which suggests higher sensitivity for rare ctDNA variants.
Dr. Tamminen commented on the flexibility of the new technology: "The technology scales from compact hotspot panels to much larger content without changing the core workflow. That means one method can serve both today's focused clinical assays and tomorrow's broader panels."
The study also examined how practical Bridge Capture would be for routine use. The method maintained similar results even when sequencing depth was reduced ten-fold, indicating efficient use of resources. Anttoni Korkiakoski, senior bioinformatics specialist and PhD candidate, explained: "Because Bridge Capture uses sequencing capacity very efficiently, you can get low variant allele frequency calls without the need for deep sequencing. That directly translates into lower per-sample cost and opens high-sensitivity testing to labs with limited sequencing budgets."
Interlaboratory testing confirmed consistent results between different sites as well as between manual and automated workflows, suggesting robust reproducibility and suitability for decentralized clinical settings.
Juha-Pekka Pursiheimo, PhD, inventor of Bridge Capture at Genomill Health Inc., stated: "Bridge Capture is built for the reality of clinical sequencing today: labs need sensitivity for rare variants, but they also need workflows that are simple, fast, and cost-predictable. Our results show you don't have to trade one for the other anymore."
Simona Adamusová, laboratory specialist and PhD candidate who co-authored the study, added: "What mattered to us wasn't just performance in our own hands—it was whether another lab could pick it up just like that and get a corresponding answer. The reproducibility data confirm this is the case."
Dr. Tamminen concluded: "We were particularly impressed with how well Bridge Capture performed against established commercial technologies, especially its ability to detect very low variant allele frequencies. As the method scales to larger panels while keeping a simple workflow, we see strong potential for broader applications, including early cancer detection."
