Converting genome structure into sequencing data
Arima’s Hi-C sequencing technology
Arima Genomics is a leader in translating Hi-C sequencing into clinically relevant cancer applications, with a technology platform developed to capture the structural organization of cancer genomes from routine FFPE samples. By measuring long-range DNA contacts, Arima’s technology generates a readout of how the genome is arranged, rearranged, and regulated in tumor cells.
That structural readout enables Arima to detect and characterize cancer-driving events that are difficult to resolve from linear sequence or transcript data alone — including complex rearrangements, noncanonical fusions, enhancer hijacking, and extrachromosomal DNA amplifications.
How Arima Hi-C Works
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Preserve structure
Arima Hi-C begins with formalin-fixed chromatin from a tumor sample, preserving spatial relationships between DNA regions that are physically adjacent in the nucleus.
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Capture contacts
Proximal DNA regions are ligated together and sequenced in paired-end format, producing linked read pairs that retain information about long-range genomic relationships, or “contact patterns,” informing the structural conformation of the genome.
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Read structural signals
When cancer alters the genome’s structure, it changes those contact patterns. Arima analyzes these signals to detect structural aberrations that can alter gene function, activate oncogenes, or create new therapy-selection opportunities.
Reading relationships, not just sequence
Most sequencing approaches read adjacent bases along the linear genome. Arima Hi-C uses sequencing to measure spatial relationships between DNA regions.
That means structural events can be detected through the genome-wide contact patterns they create — without relying solely on a breakpoint-spanning read, a predefined target, or an expressed transcript.
Examples of structure made visible by Arima Hi-C
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Arima Hi-C detects rearrangements based on genome structure, not transcript recovery. This enables partner-agnostic and breakpoint-agnostic detection of recurrent, novel, complex, and noncanonical fusions and rearrangements from FFPE tumor tissue.
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Arima Hi-C can identify structural changes that bring cancer genes into contact with regulatory elements. These events can alter gene expression without creating a conventional fusion, revealing mechanisms of oncogene activation that sequence or expression alone cannot explain.
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Arima Hi-C can detect extrachromosomal DNA amplifications and distinguish them from chromosomal amplifications. This structural context can help explain how amplified oncogenes are organized, regulated, and expressed.
Turning structure into answers
Arima Hi-C provides a structural readout of the cancer genome that can be applied across clinical testing, translational science, and biopharma drug development. The goal is not simply to detect more variants. It is to uncover cancer-driving information that can expand therapy-selection insights, reveal new biomarkers, and help identify more patients who may benefit from targeted treatments.