Agilent Technologies has introduced what it claims is the industry's first commercial mouse comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) microarray.
Agilent Technologies has introduced what it claims is the industry's first commercial mouse comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) microarray.
Designed and validated for genome-wide profiling of DNA copy number changes, the CGH microarray 44A offers a new venue and performance capability for studying genomic aberrations in cancer and other genetic diseases in this critical model organism.
Lynda Chin, associate professor of dermatology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said: "This technology is potentially transformative, as cross-species comparison can serve as a powerful biological filter for complex oncogenomic data from human cancers".
"The availability of this microarray offers a new level of resolution and sensitivity in the genomic analyses of mouse tumours".
Dr Chin's laboratory focuses on the molecular genetics of cancer genesis and progression, with particular emphasis on the development and characterisation of genetically engineered mouse models of cancers that recapitulate key aspects of the human counterpart.
Agilent launched its oligo aCGH platform during January 2005.
The company recently introduced major platform enhancements that include HD-CGH custom microarrays for pinpointing chromosomal gains and losses associated with cancer and other genetic-based illnesses.
The company says that it is expanding its portfolio of model organism microarrays to make this platform accessible to a wider range of scientific applications.
"We have taken extra measures to design a microarray that truly represents the coverage and performance needed to detect genomic gains and losses," said Mike Booth, general manager of Agilent's Genomics Business.
"Along with human catalogue and custom HD-CGH microarrays, it gives researchers access to the most robust and complete family of application-specific products".
The mouse genome CGH microarray 44A provides genome-wide coverage with an emphasis on the most commonly studied genomic regions and cancer-related genes.
It consists of over 43,000 60-mer oligonucleotide probes, empirically validated in multiple model systems, that span coding and non-coding sequences with an average spatial resolution of 35kb.
Coupled with Agilent's optimised assay protocols, this microarray allows researchers to identify and locate genetic alterations in this major model organism with the highest resolution and precision.
This microarray joins the recently expanded Agilent oligo aCGH platform, which also includes reagents, hardware, software and an improved assay protocol.
Each experiment requires only nanogram levels of total genomic DNA without genome complexity reduction.
Researchers can now perform comparative genomic analysis in humans and mice with a single, easy-to-use workflow, says the company.
Major applications include identifying and characterising genomic changes associated with oncogenesis and other human genetic diseases; identifying new oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes as potential therapy targets; exploring drug resistance mechanisms associated with genomic changes; and defining constitutional as well as acquired genetic changes.
