Agilent has launched the industry's first dual-mode, one-colour/two-colour microarray platform, offering researchers unprecedented flexibility and performance for gene expression research
Gene expression profiling represents a majority of all DNA microarray experiments.
"Until now, researchers selecting a gene expression microarray platform had to choose between convenience and resolving power," said Michael Booth, Agilent business manager, genomics.
"Scientists no longer have to make that choice.
"In a direct comparison of two RNA samples, two-colour microarrays usually give the most accurate results, particularly for small changes of expression levels, because two RNAs are co-hybridised to the arrays," said Calvin Lin, director of gene expression, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, who recently completed comprehensive testing of the dual-mode microarrays.
"However, for experiments involving large numbers of samples or across long time spans, experimental design for one-colour microarrays is more straightforward and cost-efficient," Lin continued.
"The data we have generated demonstrates Agilent's commitment to providing both excellent platform performance and superb quality control".
Agilent's dual-mode microarrays can be used for either one-colour or two-colour experiments to match researchers' requirements.
"By combining the flexibility of our dual-mode gene expression platform and the ability of customers to design their own microarrays through our eArray website, Agilent now offers the most versatile gene expression microarray platform available," Booth said.
"It is unique in its ability to adapt to scientists' research requirements and goals, even as they evolve day by day".
Also unrivalled is the sensitivity (limit of detection) of the dual-mode microarrays, says Agilent.
The products take advantage of superior-quality 60-mer probes, made possible by Agilent's proprietary inkjet (in situ) microarray manufacturing process.
Scientists can take advantage of the flexibility and performance of the dual-mode microarrays without the need to invest in additional capital equipment.
Platform selected for FDA project.
The US Food and Drug Administration recently selected Agilent's dual-mode platform as part of its microarray quality control (MAQC) project, designed to provide quality control guidance to the microarray industry.
"Our vision is to be able to assess the proficiency of a laboratory in running good microarray experiments," said Leming Shi, computational chemist, National Center for Toxicological Research, FDA, and architect of the MAQC project.
"We're glad to see Agilent in the project, and we see positive responses to the one-color data from Agilent.
"Experimental design is unified, compared with other platforms, so there's a lot of value in having two sample mixtures to evaluate the platform".
Icoria, a leading biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, submitted data from the new Agilent platform for the MAQC project.
"This is the first one-colour data I've ever generated, and I'm excited about using it to make research decisions," said FDA scientist Tucker Patterson.
"The workflow is very similar to the two-colour work we've been doing, so there's been no disruption caused by the new platform".
Agilent is a provider of complete microarray-based research systems to customers worldwide.
With its proprietary ink-jet based manufacturing technique, Agilent provides highly sensitive 60-mer oligo microarrays in custom and catalogue formats.
Agilent recently acquired Computational Biology, founded by professors Richard Young and David Gifford of MIT and the Whitehead Institute.
The acquisition provides access to expertise in location analysis and patents in this area.
Researchers can now access the Encode, Yeast, Human and Mouse promoter arrays.
Agilent also offers a 48-slide high-throughput microarray scanner, the Agilent 2100 bioanalyser with LabChip kits for sample quality analysis, feature extraction software, Silicon Genetics software products, Rosetta gene expression data analysis systems and a range of reagents.
