No significant trends emerged in diagnostics M&A or financing this past year, which did see the introduction of several government-funded initiatives, elements of which will bolster diagnostics innovation. As in other sectors of health care, the biggest question is how the incoming Trump administration could change US regulatory and funding policies.

The White House announced 36 new project commitments under its ongoing Cancer Moonshot oncology initiative, including an ambitious project to create an open liquid-biopsy database and a NASA-NCI collaboration to explore the benefits of particle-beam radiotherapy.

Two recent next-generation sequencing draft guidances have been positively received so far by industry and clinical research groups. But for FDA's ideas to play out, more databases will need to be populated and more standards developed, agency officials say. There are also more guidances to come on different types of NGS tests. Read our coverage below, and also listen to our podcast interview with FDA's Elizabeth Mansfield.