FFPE-CUTAC: A Single Assay, Multiple Layers

Archival biobanks of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens represent a vast and underused resource for retrospective molecular studies linked to clinical follow-up. However, fixation-induced chemical modification and nucleic acid fragmentation limit scalable genomic and transcriptomic profiling. FFPE-CUTAC (Cleavage Under Targeted Accessible Chromatin) is an RNA polymerase II-targeted DNA assay specifically designed to profile regulatory activity in FFPE tissue. Here, we assess its archival robustness, information content, compatibility with RNA-seq, and ability to recover copy-number alterations.

In meningioma and breast cancer cohorts, we benchmarked FFPE-CUTAC against matched fresh-frozen RNA-seq, FFPE RNA-seq and FFPE whole-genome sequencing. For FFPE specimens spanning up to 25 years, FFPE-CUTAC showed no systematic collection-year-associated decline in library yield or signal-quality metrics. In contrast, FFPE RNA-seq is more affected by the FFPE tissue degradation and specimen age on read composition, gene-body coverage, and gene detection. By measuring RNA polymerase II occupancy on chromatin rather than mature RNA abundance, FFPE-CUTAC is less constrained by transcript half-life, polyadenylation or transcript-capture design. FFPE-CUTAC extends beyond gene regions to non-coding regulatory elements, while the shared gene-level signals supported its integration with existing RNA-seq cohorts for large-scale, long-term clinical association study. FFPE-CUTAC libraries also retain DNA dosage information and can be used to recover chromosome-arm gain, loss and intact states with 96% concordance to matched whole-genome sequencing.

By converting routinely preserved pathology sections into integrated regulatory and copy-number profiles, FFPE-CUTAC provides a practical foundation for constructing clinically annotated disease maps to support molecular stratification, prognostic modeling and treatment-association studies.