A research group has investigated the performance of a microRNA (miRNA) analysis method developed by Febit in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and multiple sclerosis.
Using Febit's Geniom RT Analyzer, biomarker sets of 24 (lung cancer) and 48 (multiple sclerosis) miRNAs have been identified.
They provide the accurate discrimination of patients with NSCLC or multiple sclerosis from healthy individuals with 95 per cent accuracy.
Prof Eckart Meese from Saarland University in Germany, who is leading the research, said: 'We can rapidly incorporate any desired miRNA by using Febit's highly flexible biochip technology.
'The automated microarray analysis ensures high sample throughput in short periods of time.
'We can use small amounts of easily accessible biological specimens such as blood.
'This allows us to conduct large-scale comprehensive studies,' added Meese.
Peer Staehler, chief scientific officer of Febit, said: 'miRNA biomarkers have a broad diagnostic potential.
'Since miRNA patterns are influenced by disease progression or the response to a treatment, this type of biomarker analysis provides additional information on the course, prognosis and appropriate therapy that the treatment can be tailored to each patient,' added Staehler.
Febit's technology is intended to enable scientists to perform single nucleotide polymorphism screening in large-scale studies, searching for certain point mutations in many patient samples per sequencing run instead of sequencing one sample at a time.
