Browsing by Author "Flynt, Erin"

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    Differential RNA splicing as a potentially important driver mechanism in multiple myeloma
    (Ferrata Storti Foundation, 2021-03-01) Bauer, Michael A.; Ashby, Cody; Wardell, Christopher; Boyle, Eileen M.; Ortiz, Maria; Flynt, Erin; Thakurta, Anjan; Morgan, Gareth; Walker, Brian A.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Disruption of the normal splicing patterns of RNA is a major factor in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases. Increasingly research has shown the strong influence that splicing patterns can have on cancer progression. Multiple Myeloma is a molecularly heterogeneous disease classified by the presence of key translocations, gene expression profiles and mutations but the splicing patterns in MM remains largely unexplored. We take a multifaceted approach to define the extent and impact of alternative splicing in MM. We look at the spliceosome component, SF3B1, with hotspot mutations (K700E and K666T/Q) shown to result in an increase in alternative splicing in other cancers. We discovered a number of differentially spliced genes in comparison of the SF3B1 mutant and wild type samples that included, MZB1, DYNLL1, TMEM14C and splicing related genes DHX9, CLASRP, and SNRPE. We identified a broader role for abnormal splicing showing clear differences in the extent of novel splice variants in the different translocation groups. We show that a high number of novel splice loci is associated with adverse survival and an ultra-high risk group. The enumeration of patterns of alternative splicing has the potential to refine MM classification and to aid in the risk stratification of patients.
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    Myeloma Genome Project Panel is a Comprehensive Targeted Genomics Panel for Molecular Profiling of Patients with Multiple Myeloma
    (American Association for Cancer Research, 2022) Sudha, Parvathi; Ahsan, Aarif; Ashby, Cody; Kausar, Tasneem; Khera, Akhil; Kazeroun, Mohammad H.; Hsu, Chih-Chao; Wang, Lin; Fitzsimons, Evelyn; Salminen, Outi; Blaney, Patrick; Czader, Magdalena; Williams, Jonathan; Zaid, Mohammad I. Abu; Ansari-Pour, Naser; Yong, Kwee L.; van Rhee, Frits; Pierceall, William E.; Morgan, Gareth J.; Flynt, Erin; Gooding, Sarah; Abonour, Rafat; Ramasamy, Karthik; Thakurta, Anjan; Walker, Brian A.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Purpose: We designed a comprehensive multiple myeloma targeted sequencing panel to identify common genomic abnormalities in a single assay and validated it against known standards. Experimental design: The panel comprised 228 genes/exons for mutations, 6 regions for translocations, and 56 regions for copy number abnormalities (CNA). Toward panel validation, targeted sequencing was conducted on 233 patient samples and further validated using clinical FISH (translocations), multiplex ligation probe analysis (MLPA; CNAs), whole-genome sequencing (WGS; CNAs, mutations, translocations), or droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) of known standards (mutations). Results: Canonical immunoglobulin heavy chain translocations were detected in 43.2% of patients by sequencing, and aligned with FISH except for 1 patient. CNAs determined by sequencing and MLPA for 22 regions were comparable in 103 samples and concordance between platforms was R2 = 0.969. Variant allele frequency (VAF) for 74 mutations were compared between sequencing and ddPCR with concordance of R2 = 0.9849. Conclusions: In summary, we have developed a targeted sequencing panel that is as robust or superior to FISH and WGS. This molecular panel is cost-effective, comprehensive, clinically actionable, and can be routinely deployed to assist risk stratification at diagnosis or posttreatment to guide sequencing of therapies.