Febit has revealed that the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) has selected its Geniom RT analyser to investigate the association on microRNAs (miRNAs) and cancer.
MiRNAs are small pieces of RNA with a maximum length of 23 nucleotides, which have become an important focus of life science research in the past couple of years.
Since they do not encode any proteins, they remained largely unappreciated for many decades.
Recently, however, scientists began to realise their crucial role in the regulation of intracellular events such as differentiation or apoptosis of cells.
The number of miRNAs being discovered is growing by the day.
DKFZ scientists searched for a technology that would allow them to keep pace with the rapidly evolving miRNA databases, continually incorporating the latest information into their research on the role of miRNAs in carcinogenesis.
The Geniom RT analyser exploits freely configurable biochips produced on demand at Febit for microarray analysis of miRNA profiles in biological samples.
In addition to flexibility, the Geniom RT analyser offers a high degree of automation and numerous user-friendly features: all steps in the workflow, including sample addition, hybridisation, staining, washing, shaking and detection, are performed in a single instrument requiring a minimum of operator time.
The efficient operation results with minimal error rates and offer consistent experimental parameters providing highly reproducible results.
Data read out by the Geniom Wizard software may then be analysed with standard software solutions.
In addition to miRNA analysis, the Geniom RT analyser offers a variety of other applications.
For example, a patented biochip protocol enables the fragmentation and sorting of large genomes in smaller well-defined fractions.
Without this fractionation step, the complexity of the genomic DNA would preclude any effective analysis.
These may then serve as samples in mutation analysis and high-throughput sequencing with next-generation sequencers.
