Agilent Technologies Europe has announced a technology access agreement with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science (KNAW) for the supply of DNA microarrays and a microarray scanner
The equipment, to be installed in a new centralised research facility, will be used by the Netherlands Brain Research Institute and the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute, as well as other research institutes.
The Brain Research Institute plans to use the equipment for advanced research into neurological diseases and disorders such as Alzheimers, depression and schizophrenia and peripheral and central nervous system regeneration.
The Ophthalmic Institute plans to use the equipment for advanced research into hereditary ophthalmic diseases such as age-related macula degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa (RP, more commonly known as tunnel vision).
The research will be funded through a grant that the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is injecting into genetic research.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Ophthalmic Institute plans to develop expression profiles for AMD, glaucoma and RP, which represents more than 75% of genetically determined eye disease.
Genetic gene profiling comparison studies are planned for RNA from the retinas of young and old humans, for diseased versus healthy retinas, and for the comparison of human versus mouse retinas using RNA from the retinas from transgenic mice.
In addition customised in situ DNA microarrays will be developed for gene mutation studies.
Since many genes can be involved in AMD, glaucoma and RP there is a need for DNA microarrays by which many genes can be screened at one time using one sample from a single patient.
The research will further knowledge about the biochemical pathways involved in hereditary eye disease and may lead to the identification of novel disease genes and development of new drug targets for currently untreatable eye disorders, such as AMD and RP. Similarly, the Brain Research Institute will conduct gene-profiling research using DNA from human and animal brain and nerve tissue accessed from the Netherlands Brain Bank.
The focus will be on identifying genes critical in regenerative and degenerative modes in brain and neural diseases and conditions, and for research into neuro-degenerative diseases.
Other research institutes at KNAW, such as the Institute of Ecology, will have access to the new centre and will work with Agilent to develop custom microarrays for ecological studies such as determining the ecological effect of pesticides on fish and other aquatic creatures.
Other planned studies include agricultural research into foods and plants.
"We are looking forward to researching the differences in gene expression between regenerating and non-regenerating neurons such as those found in spinal cord cells," said Dr.
Joost Verhaagen, professor of neurobiology at the Netherlands Brain Institute.
"We hope, as a result of this research, that we will identify therapeutic genes and through the use of viral vectors, introduce them to non-regenerative neurons, such as those found in spinal cord lesions, to see if they can be regenerated." "After consideration of alternatives, we are very pleased to be working with Agilent for the supply of microarrays," said Arthur Bergen, head of the department of Ophthalmogenetics of the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute.
"The ability to quickly print customised DNA microarrays based on genetic structure that we determine from prior research is essential to us.
It gives us the potential ability to quickly identify, through a process of selection and elimination, the 20 to 30 genes that are believed to cause these diseases and then to replicate these genes on microarrays for further research."
