Tag Archives: microarray

LC Sciences Pairs Deep Sequencing with Customized Microarrays to Offer New Seq-Array Service for Discovery & Profiling Applications

LC Sciences today announced the launch of its new Seq-Array(SM) services designed to take full advantage of both the latest deep sequencing capabilities and the proven genomics tool – microarray. This combination of technologies advances microRNA research to the next level of depth and understanding that was not possible before with either of the technologies alone. LC Sciences has been a leading provider of microRNA discovery and profiling services since 2005.

LC Sciences Pairs Deep Sequencing with Customized Microarrays to Offer New Seq-Array Service for Discovery & Profiling Applications

microRNA is a young, dynamic field of study and though significant discoveries are being made every day, the very complex regulatory mechanisms of these small RNAs are still not fully understood. Continued advancement requires adaptable, even customizable research tools that can keep pace with the rapidly advancing research in this field. While deep sequencing yields results that broadly cover genome-wide miRNAs from samples of various origins, the relatively high cost and low throughput nature of sample handling, makes the systematic follow through of the sequencing discoveries for validation and/or profiling in a reproducible manner time consuming and expensive. Microarrays have achieved wide acceptance as the preferred tool to systematically profile and compare the gene expression of large numbers of samples rapidly, reproducibly, and cost effectively; however they are dependent on previously known sequence information. Seq-ArraySM is a combination of these technologies that maximizes the effectiveness of each method while overcoming the limitations of the other.

Seq-ArraySM for microRNA starts with exploratory small RNA deep sequencing of a single or mix of RNA samples to perform a broad search and generate a comprehensive atlas of all microRNAs within a given research study. Next, bioinformatics are employed to map the raw sequencing reads to a custom generated sequence database, classify and align all sequences and sequence variants, as well as to predict novel microRNAs. A custom SeqArray™ microarray is designed based on the mapped novel microRNAs, the predicted novel microRNAs, and any previously described publicly available microRNA sequences. Finally, expression profiling of large numbers of samples on the custom array design together with additional bioinformatics work completes an efficient pathway to focused biological insights including: revealing regulatory target genes, defining gene expression pathways, and discovering biomarkers.

“We feel like this is a productive match of the two technologies,” says Dr. Christoph Eicken, Head of Technical Services at LC Sciences. “It’s something we have really already been doing for a while and thought it made sense to package together as a single service. Often times researchers come to us who are studying a non-typical species with very limited or no prior knowledge of microRNA sequences or function in their model system. By the end of the complete Seq-ArraySM project they have become the world authority on microRNA in their area of research. It’s been very exciting to be part of this.”

About microRNA – microRNAs are small non-protein-coding RNA molecules that function as negative regulators of gene expression by targeting specific mRNAs. This either inhibits translation or promotes mRNA degradation.

Via EPR Network
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LC Sciences announced the availability of probe content miRBase 10.0 for their microRNA (miRNA) microarray customers

Taking advantage of its flexible µParaflo™ Chip Technology, Houston based LC Sciences today announced immediate availability of probe content miRBase 10.0 for their microRNA (miRNA) microarray customers. This announcement comes less than a week after Sanger Institute’s update of their sequence database for known miRNAs (miRBase) 1 to version 10.0 (http://microrna.sanger.ac.uk/sequences). As the jump in

version numbers from 9.2 to 10.0 suggests, this update marks a major milestone and features significant changes: 489 new hairpin sequences and 971 novel mature miR and miR* experimentally verified products have been added.

These numbers represent an increase of unique miRNA sequences by 42%. “This exciting increase in data means that researchers using pre-spotted glass arrays with probe content based on versions as recent as 9.1 are missing 49% of mouse, and more than 50% of human sequences, just to give two examples. The other important point is that these sequences are experimentally verified and publicly available data. Unlike with proprietary probe content the researcher has full access and control over the results.” said Chris Hebel, Director of Business Development at LC Sciences.

The importance of this update is emphasized by another aspect of the release: many human, mouse and rat mature miRNAs were renamed and the sequence boundaries changed to reflect the predominant forms identified in recent large-scale cloning studies. The public miRBase sequence database serves as the primary probe content for many commercially available miRNA profiling microarrays. Detection of miRNAs using a microarray offers the opportunity for genome-wide miRNA expression profiling by examining all known miRNA transcripts in a single experiment. However, the continued updating of the database can be problematic for researchers using pre-spotted glass slide arrays as the probe content of the arrays immediately goes out of date whenever a new miRBase version is released. Especially, in a rapidly evolving field as miRNA research it is important to scientists to have the most complete picture of miRNAs expressed in their experimental samples.

LC Sciences miRNA microarrays make use of a microfluidics on-chip synthesis platform, termed µParaFlo™, versus a traditional spotted array based on pre-synthesized oligonucleotides. This on-chip synthesis platform solves the issue of out of date microarrays because made-to-order microarrays can be produced, delivering the most up-to-date research tools to researchers.

In addition to providing much more uniform and reproducible features than a spotted array, on-chip synthesis permits the total customization of content on each individual microarray opening up additional applications such as the discovery of new miRNAs and other small non-coding RNAs.

About microRNA (miRNA)
miRNAs are small non-protein-coding RNA molecules that function as negative regulators of gene expression by base pairing with specific mRNAs. This either inhibits translation or promotes mRNA degradation. About miRBase – The miRBase sequence database is a comprehensive database of miRNA sequence data, annotation, and predicted gene targets and is the primary public repository for these data. Release 10.0 of the database contains 5071 entries representing hairpin precursor miRNAs, expressing 4922 maturemiRNA products, in primates, rodents, birds, fish, worms, flies, plants and viruses (miRBase release summary). miRBase also provides a gene-naming service for assigning official miRNA names to novel miRNAs before they are published. It is freely available to all at http://microrna.sanger.ac.uk/.

About LC Sciences
LC Sciences offers specialty microarray services for nucleic acid/protein profiling and functional analysis, biomarker-discovery, and novel drug screening. Our array service products are based on Atactic Technologies’ µParaflo™ platform technologies that encompass advanced digital chemical synthesis, pico-liter scale biochemical assays, and microfluidic reaction devices containing high density individual 3D chambers.

 

Via EPR Network
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