Sydney IVF is studying methylation patterns as part of an overall project aimed at understanding the impact of these patterns on embryonic development
Human Genetic Signatures reports that Sydney IVF has completed a successful trial of its MethylEasy DNA bisulphite modification kit.
During the trial, Sydney IVF was able to achieve excellent detection of methylated cytosine residues starting from as little as 60 cells - around 400 picograms.
Sydney IVF is studying methylation patterns as part of an overall project aimed at understanding the impact of these patterns on embryonic development.
Changes in DNA methylation have been implicated in aging and disease and have been the focus of rapidly increasing scientific interest in recent years.
Bisulphite conversion is the method currently employed for revealing methylated cytosines in DNA (and was invented by one of the HGS founders, Geoffrey Grigg).
However, conventional conversion techniques can result in the loss of up to 96% of the starting DNA, and are complicated procedures, requiring multiple tube changes and column purification steps.
The MethylEasy DNA bisulphite modification kit reduces bisulphite DNA loss by more than 90%, to give truly representative analysis of methylated cytosine residues.
The Human Genetic Signatures novel technique is a one-tube reaction, requiring no DNA pre-treatment and no column purification.
The technique requires only 100 picograms of starting material. In-house testing at Human Genetic Signatures, using reliable primers and high quality DNA, has even shown that a signal can be detected with as little as 20 picograms of starting DNA.
These proprietary improvements to the commonly used bisulphite DNA conversion technique are protected by pending US and International patents.
The MethylEasy kit has now been released for sale by Human Genetic Signatures.
In the pipeline, due for release in early 2005, is a high throughput version of the MethylEasy technology, which will be suitable for parallel screening of multiple samples.
