The BioInsights Podcast
The BioInsights Podcast: discussing the challenges of translating novel biologics from bench to clinic to market.
The BioInsights Podcast
From one target to many: how high‑plex ddPCR is changing CGT from development to analytics
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BioInsights
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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Lauren Coyle, Editor, BioInsights, speaks with Christian Overgaard, Senior Field Application Scientist, Bio‑Rad Laboratories, about the technical and practical evolution of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and high‑plex multiplexing, covering assay design challenges, vector integration analysis, biodistribution studies, and the emerging role of digital PCR in cell and gene therapy characterization and clinical development.
1. Multiplexing in qPCR has long been considered technically challenging to scale reliably. What are the underlying reasons for this?
2. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) operates on a fundamentally different principle. Can you explain the distinction, and how does that change what is achievable in higher-plex assay design?
3. Where do labs typically encounter limitations when trying to operationalize high-plex workflows?
4. How did workflow speed previously limit gene expression studies? a. 5.25
5. Why is copy number alone insufficient for cell therapy characterization?
Vector integration analysis has historically relied on complex long-range assays. How does a small amplicon multiplexing approach change that in practice?
7. Biodistribution studies typically involve a large number of targets across multiple tissue types. What does high-plex gene expression profiling make possible that previously was not feasible at scale?
There appears to be a broader shift towards using next-generation sequencing (NGS) for discovery and ddPCR for longitudinal monitoring. Is this a pattern you are observing, and what do you think is driving it?
As multiplexing capacity continues to develop, where do you see the most meaningful advances coming from?