Roche Highlights Robust Performance of Ellis Bio SuperMethyl™ Kits in New Tech Spotlight Evaluating Five Low‑Input cfDNA Methyl‑Seq Workflows

Independent Roche evaluation shows SuperMethyl™ Max delivers the highest methylation calling accuracy in the study, producing fewer false calls than both a leading enzymatic methyl-seq (EM‑seq) method and a leading traditional bisulfite kit in low‑input cell-free DNA (cfDNA) workflows.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellis Bio today announced that an independent evaluation by Roche, published in a new Tech Spotlight, found that the company's new ultra-mild SuperMethyl™ Max bisulfite conversion chemistry "matched or outperformed the gold standard" when paired with Roche's KAPA EvoPrep^® library preparation for low-input cfDNA and genomic DNA (gDNA). The evaluation also showed that Ellis Bio's faster workflow, SuperMethyl™ Fast, delivered high conversion efficiency and higher methylation calling accuracy than both the traditional bisulfite method and a leading enzymatic methyl‑seq kit across whole‑genome and targeted methylation sequencing applications.

"Methylation sequencing is becoming an essential tool for understanding gene regulation, cancer biology, and disease progression," said Chuan He, founder of Ellis Bio, University of Chicago Professor, HHMI Investigator and newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. "To realize the full potential of methylation sequencing, researchers need technologies that deliver high‑quality methylation data from low‑input and challenging samples. This independent Roche evaluation confirms that the novel ultra‑mild and ultra‑fast chemistries can do exactly that, without compromising on speed, accuracy, or compatibility."

Key findings from the Roche evaluation on 1 ng cfDNA and 10 ng gDNA inputs:

• Matched or outperformed leading bisulfite or enzymatic methods. The Roche data show that Ellis Bio's SuperMethyl Max kit, when combined with KAPA EvoPrep Kit, outperformed NEBNext Enzymatic Methyl-seq v2 Kit (New England Biolabs' workflow) and the traditional EZ DNA Methylation™-Gold Kit (Zymo Research) on library yield metrics.
• Highest conversion efficiency in the study. SuperMethyl Max achieved approximately 99.8% C-to-T conversion in both cfDNA and gDNA workflows; SuperMethyl Fast achieved approximately 99.7%.
• Lowest false‑positive methylation rate in the study. SuperMethyl Max produced just 0.18% false‑positive calls on cfDNA and 0.15% on gDNA, at least 4X lower than the NEBNext^® EM‑seq v2 workflows and 3X lower than EZ DNA Methylation-Gold workflow.
• Stronger gDNA library yield and deeper coverage. SuperMethyl Max generated roughly 1.8X higher gDNA library yields and approximately 19% deeper mean coverage than the traditional bisulfite kit, with minimal GC bias.
• Robust targeted methyl‑seq performance. In targeted enrichment using the KAPA HyperCap^® workflow, SuperMethyl Max delivered roughly 2X higher mean target coverage on gDNA than the traditional bisulfite kit, meaningful for liquid biopsy and minimal residual disease (MRD) research.
• Drop‑in compatibility with KAPA EvoPrep. Ellis Bio chemistries integrated cleanly with Roche's KAPA EvoPrep library preparation, supporting scalable NGS workflows.
• Fast workflow option. SuperMethyl Fast provides a shorter bisulfite workflow while still delivering higher conversion efficiency and lower false‑positive rates than the traditional bisulfite kit, useful for labs prioritizing turnaround and throughput.

"Researchers and clinicians developing next‑generation methylation assays need solutions that combine accuracy, scalability, and compatibility with fragile low‑input samples such as cfDNA," said Ruitu Lyu, CTO of Ellis Bio. "It's a credit to the KAPA EvoPrep platform that three bisulfite chemistries and an enzymatic workflow could be evaluated side‑by‑side using a single, consistent library prep. Additionally, seeing our novel bisulfite chemistries delivering the highest conversion efficiencies, fastest turnaround times, and the lowest false-positive rates of any workflow in Roche's study confirms what our team has been building toward: ultra‑mild and ultra‑fast bisulfite chemistries that don't ask researchers to trade accuracy for speed or simplified workflow."

For teams working on low‑input methylation sequencing, liquid biopsy, MRD research, and cancer epigenetics, the Roche Tech Spotlight provides independent, third‑party data showing that SuperMethyl chemistries can deliver high‑accuracy bisulfite conversion within established NGS workflows.

The full Roche Tech Spotlight, "Versatile, robust methylation profiling with the KAPA EvoPrep Kit," is available at https://ellisbio.com/roche-tech-spotlight.

SuperMethyl Max is based on Ellis Bio's proprietary Ultra‑Mild Bisulfite Sequencing (UMBS) chemistry, designed to minimize DNA degradation while maintaining high conversion efficiency, and is currently available through Ellis Bio's Early Access program. SuperMethyl Fast utilizes Ellis Bio's Ultra-Fast Bisulfite Sequencing (UBS) chemistry, enabling rapid methylation conversion workflows optimized for speed and scalability.

About Ellis Bio

Ellis Bio is advancing next‑generation epigenomics tools for liquid biopsy, cancer detection, and translational genomics. Built on innovations developed in the laboratory of Professor Chuan He at The University of Chicago, Ellis Bio's SuperMethyl products deliver ultra‑mild and ultra‑fast bisulfite chemistries designed to improve low‑input methylation sequencing workflows while reducing DNA damage and workflow complexity. Learn more at www.ellisbio.com.

Media Contact
Diana West-Szymanski, Operations Lead, Ellis Bio
[email protected]  |  1-888-270-9057

SuperMethyl™ is a trademark of Ellis Bio. KAPA, KAPA EvoPrep^®, and KAPA HyperCap^® are trademarks of Roche. NEBNext^® is a registered trademark of New England Biolabs. EZ DNA Methylation™ is a trademark of Zymo Research. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE Ellis Bio Inc