Watchmaker Genomics Launches TAPS+, Expanding Multimodal Capabilities in Oncology Ahead of AMP 2025

- TAPS+ enables simultaneous detection of methylation and genetic variants, unlocking new insights for precision oncology and translational research. - Preserves DNA integrity in challenging clinically relevant samples, including FFPE tissue and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). - Platform-agnostic chemistry enables seamless integration across sequencing systems.

Watchmaker Genomics today announced the launch of TAPS+, a next-generation technology that unites genetic and epigenetic readouts from the same DNA molecule. By capturing multiple biological dimensions in a single assay, TAPS+ delivers a richer, more comprehensive view of tumor biology, with the power to advance applications in translational oncology, early cancer detection, therapy response monitoring, fragmentomics, and minimal residual disease assessment.

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Watchmaker Genomics launches TAPS+, a next-generation technology that unites genetic and epigenetic readouts from the same DNA molecule.

Key features of the TAPS+ chemistry

Traditional methylation analysis techniques, such as bisulfite treatment, effectively collapse sequence diversity from four bases to three while often damaging DNA. TAPS+ overcomes these limitations with a positive-readout chemistry that gently converts only methylated cytosines to thymines, leaving unmethylated cytosines unchanged. This preserves the natural four-base complexity of DNA, enabling accurate methylation profiling and improved read quality and variant detection across the genome.

Built on Watchmaker’s expertise in enzyme engineering and workflow optimization, TAPS+ streamlines multimodal sequencing into an automation-friendly library preparation completed in just six hours. The chemistry preserves sample integrity, improves CpG coverage, enables somatic variant calling, and reduces false positives, delivering consistent, high-quality results even from low-input, degraded, and clinically relevant samples, such as FFPE tissue and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA).

Advancing tumor profiling

Among more than 50 early evaluators, Dr. Matija Snuderl, Director of Molecular Pathology at NYU Langone Health, has used TAPS+ to explore combined genomic and epigenomic profiling in tumor analysis.

“With TAPS+, we can directly detect 5mC alongside genetic drivers, even from difficult samples like FFPE or ctDNA from cerebrospinal fluid,” said Dr. Snuderl. “The combination of a unified workflow and improved chemistry delivers the kind of multimodal insight we’ve been waiting for in precision oncology.”

Dr. Snuderl will share results demonstrating the use of TAPS+ for integrated methylation and genomic tumor profiling at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting. His presentation, Integrated Genomic–Epigenetic Profiling of CNS Tumors with TAPS+ for Direct 5mC Detection from ctDNA and FFPE will be on Wednesday, November 12th at 12 PM ET in Room 153C.

Broad compatibility and access

Designed with platform-agnostic compatibility, TAPS+ integrates seamlessly across sequencing systems. At the ASHG 2025 Annual Meeting, Roche presented feasibility results generated on their unreleased instrument. Ultima Genomics highlighted data demonstrating TAPS+ performance on the UG 100™ – highlighting the chemistry’s flexibility and compatibility across platforms. Unlike other methylation technologies limited by restrictive licensing, Watchmaker is committed to broadly enabling TAPS+ for customer use across research and diagnostic applications on multiple sequencing platforms. This open, collaborative approach allows researchers and clinical laboratories to integrate TAPS+ within their existing ecosystems, accelerating the transition to multimodal genomic and epigenomic analysis across translational research, developmental biology, aging, neurobiology, and oncology.

Learn more about TAPS+: https://www.watchmakergenomics.com/taps.html

Notes for Editors:

Landmark TAPS publication:

Liu, Y., Siejka-Zielińska, P., Velikova, G. et al. Bisulfite-free direct detection of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine at base resolution. Nat Biotechnol 37, 424–429 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0041-2

Publications on the utility of TAPS for liquid biopsy:

Vavoulis, D.V., Cutts, A., Thota, N. et al. Multimodal cell-free DNA whole-genome TAPS is sensitive and reveals specific cancer signals. Nat Commun 16, 430 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55428-y

Siejka-Zielińska P, Cheng J, Jackson F, et al. Cell-free DNA TAPS provides multimodal information for early cancer detection. Sci Adv. 2021;7(36):eabh0534. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abh0534

About Watchmaker Genomics

Watchmaker Genomics is a life sciences company focused on developing high-performance tools that empower genomic research and clinical applications. Leveraging expertise in protein engineering and next-generation sequencing, Watchmaker delivers precision reagents and platforms that enable superior accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in molecular analysis. The company is dedicated to advancing breakthrough technologies to support field innovations in cancer detection, epigenetics, and liquid biopsy applications.

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