By Diagnostics World Staff
August 21, 2025 | Earlier this month, Boston Children’s Hospital, Broad Clinical Labs, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announced the formation of a collaborative clinical research and testing initiative, Boston Research in Innovative Genomics for Hematologic and Tumor Sequencing (BrightSeq). Molecular testing, while routinely used on patients with cancer, is not optimized to provide useful information for treatment and care of patients with pediatric cancers. This initiative aims to change that.
BrightSeq’s mission is to develop and clinically implement a suite of CLIA-approved molecular assays to assist in the diagnosis of pediatric tumors, says Dr. Brian Compton of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “This collaboration has been developed to deliver cutting edge molecular testing optimized for childhood cancer care, including tumor profiling and minimally invasive liquid biopsy assays.”
The three institutes each play a critical role and will work together to deliver pediatric-specific molecular tests that can be used to improve outcomes for patients with childhood cancers. Boston Children’s Hospital will lead interpretation and reporting of testing; Broad Clinical Labs will build, validate, and operate clinical sequencing and genomic analysis; and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will develop clinical trials that leverage test results to improve outcomes for pediatric patients and drive implementation of BrightSeq info routine clinical care.
The initiative also brings forth the BrightSeq Pediatric Assay Suite, which will deliver next-generation sequencing results of tumor samples obtained from surgical biopsies and resections and of minimally invasive biopsy samples typically obtained through a peripheral blood draw, according to Compton. “The assays will then provide identification of key targetable genomic alterations relevant to pediatric cancers and tumor fraction estimation of circulating tumor material for risk-stratified treatment selection.”
Currently, the teams are working on CLIA certifying sample workflows, assay performance characteristics, data management, and results reporting. BrightSeq provides hope and convenience for physicians and patients, who can look forward to clinically orderable molecular testing of tumor tissue and minimally-invasive liquid biopsy samples optimized for the care of children with cancer. Additionally, test results will be interpreted and prepared by a clinical pathology team with pediatric-specific experience in cancer care.