Roche has announced the acquisition of Germany-based Signature Diagnostics. Signature is a translational oncology and genomics company that develops large blood plasma and tissue biobanks in multiple cancers. It 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 Mr Roland Diggelmann,COO, Roche Diagnostics. He added, "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. 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," said Dr Andre Rosenthal, CEO, Signature.

Signature will be integrated into Roche Sequencing Unit and will continue to focus on expanding its innovative genomic signature portfolio. This is the third genomics company that Roche has acquired recently, the other two being Bina Technologies and Genia Technologies.