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mcPCR — Syndex Bio

Syndex Bio's mcPCR ("methyl-copying PCR") co-amplifies DNA sequence and methylation in a single reaction, sidestepping the bisulfite-conversion damage that has constrained methylation sequencing since the 1990s.

At a glance

  • Vendor / launch date / availability: Syndex Bio; profiled at AGBT 2026 (Marco Island, Feb 22–25); roadmap (not commercially shipping at AGBT) per GEN AGBT 2026 recap.
  • Chemistry / modality: Methyl-copying PCR — single-reaction co-amplification of DNA sequence and methylation state, preserving methyl-mark information through amplification without bisulfite or enzymatic conversion per GEN AGBT 2026 recap.
  • Throughput (PR): TBD — reactions/run and amplicons/reaction not enumerated in public AGBT 2026 coverage.
  • Read length: n/a (mcPCR is a library-prep / amplification chemistry; read length is set by downstream sequencer choice).
  • Accuracy (PR): TBD — no per-CpG methylation-call accuracy, no conversion-efficiency-equivalent metric, no comparison to bisulfite / EM-seq / TAPS in public AGBT coverage.
  • List price / cost-per-sample: TBD — roadmap-status reagent kit, no pricing surfaced.

Source caveat: AGBT 2026 public coverage of Syndex Bio is limited to the GEN recap inclusion. All quantitative fields are flagged TBD; (vendor PR — no independent benchmark) applies to all spec claims.

What's new vs prior generation

Methylation sequencing has historically required converting DNA before sequencing — bisulfite (Frommer 1992) degrades 90%+ of input, EM-seq (NEB) and TAPS (Cambridge Epigenetix) reduce damage but still require a chemical/enzymatic conversion step. mcPCR's pitch is to preserve methyl marks through amplification rather than reading them off a converted template, which would:

  • Reduce input requirements (relevant for liquid-biopsy cfDNA workflows where input is the binding constraint).
  • Preserve sequence context (no C→T conversion ambiguity).
  • Co-amplify sequence + methylation in one reaction (vs running parallel WGS + WGBS libraries).

The strategic positioning is liquid-biopsy methylation panels and cancer early-detection cfDNA workflows.

Headline benchmarks

TBD — no published demonstration cohort, no comparison to bisulfite/EM-seq/TAPS on standard methylation benchmarks (e.g. SEQC2 reference, NIST methylation standards) indexed at time of writing.

Reception / competitive context

mcPCR enters a crowded methylation-prep landscape (bisulfite kits, NEB EM-seq, Cambridge Epigenetix TAPS, Illumina Infinium arrays for targeted methylation). Differentiation is on the amplification step rather than the conversion step — if mcPCR genuinely preserves methylation through PCR cycles, it would slot upstream of any methylation-aware sequencer and downstream methylation analysis stack. The natural commercial use case is cfDNA liquid biopsy where low input + multiplexed methylation + sequence calls in one reaction has obvious appeal for early-detection assays (Grail Galleri-class).

  • Downstream methylation analysis tools (Bioconductor):
  • bsseq (GBCC 2025) — methylation analysis on bisulfite-converted data; would need an mcPCR-aware import path if the chemistry ships.
  • decemedip (EuroBioC 2025) — methylation deconvolution; downstream of any methylation chemistry including mcPCR.
  • methylKit — general methylation differential analysis.
  • AACR axis — methylation / liquid biopsy: mcPCR is too new for AACR 2026 data posters; expect first methods abstracts at AACR 2027 if Syndex ships in 2026. Methylation cfDNA early-detection is one of the most-watched AACR axes (Grail, Exact Sciences, Freenome) and mcPCR's pitch lands squarely in that segment.
  • AGBT 2026 lineage: Syndex Bio is profiled alongside Codetta, Cellanome, and Volta in the GEN AGBT 2026 recap as part of the "emerging platforms" sweep.

Sources

Open items: locate a primary Syndex Bio press release or methods preprint enumerating mcPCR's conversion-free chemistry, methylation-call accuracy, and benchmark against bisulfite/EM-seq. Backfill spec table when a primary source is reachable.