Largest cancer research centre in France expected to become resource centre for European hospitals and universities
Agilent Technologies and Rosetta Biosoftware say that the Institut Gustave-Roussy (IGR) has selected their gene expression solutions to help to expand the institute's position as a leading cancer research facility in Europe.
The largest cancer research centre in France, the IGR is a non-profit, private institution devoted exclusively to research and clinical work in oncology.
It is also a lead member of the largest cancer research consortium in France.
"We are applying gene expression research to the very early stages of cancer with the goal of identifying gene patterns that could be used to develop early-warning cancer screening or diagnostic tests and to predict clinical outcome for cancer patients," said Professor Gilbert Lenoir, head of Research at IGR.
"Through our expanded cancer genomics center, we hope to facilitate advances in cancer research, cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment throughout Europe.
The high sensitivity of Agilent's microarrays and Agilent's ability to rapidly and iteratively design and print new microarrays that can keep pace with our evolving research is critical to our success." IGR is scaling up its cancer genomics research and plans to become a reference centre and expert resource to other European hospitals and universities, with the ultimate goal of developing diagnostic tools and treatments for various cancers.
As part of this initiative, IGR has licensed the Rosetta Resolver system, an enterprise-wide bioinformatics solution for gene expression, and purchased Agilent's gene expression solution, which includes a variety of catalogue and custom microarrays, a high-throughput microarray scanner, and lab-on-a-chip sample analysis technologies.
Using the Agilent and Rosetta Biosoftware solutions, IGR plans to provide expert genomics research services to the European scientific community.
IGR also has become an Agilent European training centre for microarray analysis. "With the help of Agilent and Rosetta Biosoftware, we have established a unique gene expression training and services centre that is the first of its kind in Europe," said Vladimir Lazar, head of the functional genomics unit at IGR.
"The Rosetta Resolver software has generated the same results in one day that previously required three weeks using classical mathematical tools.
We have incorporated it into our genomics platform and bioinformatics training centre with the goal of providing greater education and access to these types of tools among a broader scientific community in Europe."
