Granted Patent B2

US 12,601,089 · App. 19/188,895 · Granted Apr 14, 2026

Inventors: Sivan Bercovici (Redwood City, CA); Lily Blair (Palo Alto, CA); Timothy A. Blauwkamp (Palo Alto, CA); Peter J. Eugster (San Mateo, CA); David K. Hong (Mountain View, CA); Trupti Kawli (Redwood City, CA); Michael J. Rosen (Palo Alto, CA); Damek Spacek (Redwood City, CA); Igor D. Vilfan (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: Karius, Inc.

C40B50/06C12N15/1093C12Q1/6806

Abstract

Claims (38)

1 . A method of preparing a nucleic acid library from an initial sample, comprising:

(a) adding one or more process control molecules to the initial sample to provide a spiked initial sample, wherein the one or more process control molecules are synthetic nucleic acids; and

(b) generating a nucleic acid library from the spiked initial sample, wherein generating the nucleic acid library comprises attaching one or more adapters to nucleic acids in the spiked initial sample, wherein the one or more adapters comprise an overhang region and a double-stranded region;

wherein nucleic acids used to generate the nucleic acid library are not extracted from the initial sample nor the spiked initial sample before the attaching the one or more adapters.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising isolating the nucleic acids after the attaching the one or more adapters.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acids are single-stranded nucleic acids.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is selected from the group consisting of plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, bronchoalveolar lavage, saliva, and a nasal sample.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is plasma.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is bronchoalveolar lavage.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is from a human subject.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is from a human subject that has undergone an organ transplant.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more process control molecules comprises one or more of an ID Spike(s), Spanks, and/or Sparks or GC Spike-in Panel.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the nucleic acid library from the initial sample comprises:

(a) denaturing the nucleic acids to produce denatured nucleic acids;

(b) attaching an adapter to the 3′-end of the denatured nucleic acids to produce adapted nucleic acids;

(c) attaching an adapter to the 5′-end of the denatured nucleic acids; and

(d) amplifying the complementary strands.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising annealing a primer to the adapted nucleic acids and extending the primer with a polymerase to generate complementary strands.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein attaching the one or more adapters to the nucleic acids comprises ligating with a ligase selected from the group consisting of: T4 DNA ligase, CircLigase II, CircLigase ssDNA Ligase, CircLigase RNA Ligase, Thermostable App-DNA/RNA ligase, T4 RNA ligase 1, T4 RNA Ligase 2, T4 RNA Ligase 2 truncated, and Splint-R ligase.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein attaching the one or more adapters to the nucleic acids comprises ligating with a T4 DNA ligase.

14 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising incubating with a protease prior to denaturing the nucleic acids.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the protease comprises proteinase K.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more adapters comprise a splint oligonucleotide.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising introducing a moiety to the 5′-end of the splint oligonucleotide.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the moiety comprises a bulky moiety.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acids comprise cell-free nucleic acids.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the cell-free nucleic acids comprise microbial cell-free nucleic acids.

21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the nucleic acids comprise cell-free DNA (cfDNA), cell-free RNA (cfRNA), or a combination thereof.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the nucleic acids comprise a combination of cfDNA and cfRNA.

23 . The method of claim 22 , further comprising reverse transcribing the cfRNA into CDNA.

24 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is selected from the group consisting of whole blood, urine, stool, abdominal fluid, ascites fluid, peritoneal lavage, gastric fluid, interstitial fluid, lymph fluid, bile, abscess fluid, amniotic fluid, meconium, sinus aspirate, cheek swab, skin swab, urethral swab, cervical swab, nasopharyngeal swab, nasopharyngeal aspirate, vaginal swab, semen, vaginal discharge, intercellular fluid, pericardial fluid, rectal swab, and tears.

25 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said initial sample is from an animal.

26 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the attaching one or more adapters comprises attaching the splint oligonucleotide using a T4 DNA ligase.

27 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising heating the nucleic acids in the initial sample to denature the nucleic acids.

28 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising size selecting adapted nucleic acids after attaching one or more adapters to nucleic acids in the spiked initial sample.

29 . The method of claim 28 , wherein size selecting comprises size selecting through electrophoresis.

30 . The method of claim 28 , wherein size selecting comprises immobilizing the adapted nucleic acids on magnetic beads.

31 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the microbial cell-free nucleic acids comprise nucleic acids derived from a bacterium, a virus, a fungus, a protozoan parasite, or any combination thereof.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (150)