According to a recent survey, over 40% of researchers who currently use tissue microarrays are working on cancer research or diagnosis
According to a recent survey, over 40% of researchers who currently use tissue microarrays are working on cancer research or diagnosis.
Since tissue microarrays, per se, were developed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, it is not surprising that early adopters of this technology are using them in oncology.
Future market growth will be driven by adoption of tissue microarrays in other areas of research, such as neurobiology and infectious disease, as well as their increased utilisation in high-throughput analysis of tissue sections, validation of DNA microarray data and biomarker discovery.
These findings were recently published by BioInformatics in a new life science market report, 'The Market for Tissue Microarrays'.
Based on a comprehensive survey of more than 250 researchers and clinicians who currently use tissue microarrays, the report details the products and techniques most commonly used and reveals the product attributes and suppliers with which they are most satisfied.
Histology is taking on new importance in clinical and research laboratories as the growing use of DNA microarrays and other rapid genomic analysis techniques creates increasing amounts of data that need to be validated.
Until the development of the tissue microarray, informative tissue analysis required the production of individual tissue sections one at a time, which created a bottleneck in the research pipeline.
Now, tissue microarrays allow hundreds of tissue samples to be analysed simultaneously on one microscope slide in the same amount of time that was previously required for a single specimen.
Besides increasing throughput, tissue microarrays offer researchers the ability to conserve precious tissue resources, improve internal experimental control and reduce the consumption of reagents.
"Science ultimately benefits since tissue microarrays-by their very nature-often necessitate multi-centre research studies, which bring the expertise and experience of many talented researchers to bear on tough problems," observes Robin Rothrock, director of market research at BioInformatics.
Realising the benefits, an increasing number of scientists are starting to use tissue microarrays.
In fact, within the study population, the number of users has at least doubled each year over the past two years.
In the next 12 months, this number is projected to grow over 40% with much of the near-term growth being driven by new entrants rather than by increased consumption by current users.
Many scientists produce, process and analyse their own tissue microarrays, citing their control over array content and cost as key reasons.
To create their arrays, over one-half of these respondents indicated that they use in-house developed instruments and hand tools, while others use specially designed instrumentation from Beecher and Chemicon.
In addition to the tools for creating arrays, scientists frequently employ antibodies, stains and colorimetric or fluorescent detection reagents to visualise target RNA, DNA and protein molecules in tissue microarray sections. "Invitrogen is a leading supplier of signal detection kits and reagents, and as of yet, few other suppliers appear to have targeted their signal detection products specifically to tissue microarray users," says Rothrock.
The most pervasive stumbling blocks that scientists encounter when employing tissue microarrays are the detachment of specimens during processing and the fact that the fixative medium is not optimised for the detection of specific target molecules.
"I believe that these two reasons likely explain why over half of the researchers surveyed outsource the production of tissue microarrays, preferring to rely on someone else's expertise," claims Rothrock.
Despite the fact that 52% and 21% of the respondents outsource the production and processing/analysis of tissue microarrays, respectively, a dominant commercial provider has yet to emerge in this highly fragmented market.
Of the researchers who obtain tissue microarrays externally, only 48% purchase premade arrays and another 15% order custom-made arrays from commercial sources-with Invitrogen, BD Biosciences-Pharmingen, and Ambion among the top suppliers.
Suppliers are meeting users' requirements for choice of species, number of samples per slide and choice of tissues; however, scientists are less satisfied with other important attributes like batch-to-batch consistency and the number of slides per order.
With regards to the respondents who outsource the processing/analysis of their tissue microarrays, only 31% rely on commercial service providers such as Biocat and Zymed.
These respondents indicated that cost-effectiveness and quality of service were factors in their selection of a particular provider.
"Tissue microarrays and related products or services represent a new opportunity for many companies to further expand their presence in the lucrative pharmaceutical and clinical markets.
Companies should use this report to capitalize on the increasing popularity of this powerful technology," concludes Rothrock.
