MiRNA Microarray Offers Wider Range with Greater Sensitivity

Projects aimed at the development of procedures for personalized medicine as well as other biotechnology research will be able to take advantage of a new generation of microRNA (miRNA) microarrays.

The new "GeneChip miRNA 2.0 Array” is produced by Affymetrix, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA, USA). It is an enhanced version of Affymetrix's highly regarded miRNA view system.

The GeneChip miRNA 2.0 Array offers the broadest coverage of known miRNA, encompassing 131 organisms on a single array, and nearly doubles the content of the previous array. Moreover, it is the only array that contains unique probe sequences designed to independently interrogate human, mouse, and rat precursor RNA (pre-miRNA) and mature miRNA in the same experiment.

The GeneChip miRNA 2.0 Array has excellent sensitivity across every miRNA transcript. Testing has demonstrated that the array could reproducibly detect 94% of all transcripts present in a 1.0 amol [10-18 mol] sample. Coupled with the Genisphere FlashTag Biotin RNA Labeling Kit, the new array maintains the same assay protocol, requiring only a 45-minute assay with no amplification or purification steps, and as little as 100 ng of input total RNA.

"This new GeneChip miRNA 2.0 Array demonstrates Affymetrix' commitment to stay at the forefront of gene expression analysis and to provide life scientists with relevant and timely content that is critical to research in gene expression and cellular function,” said Dr. Kevin Cannon, vice president of expression applications at Affymetrix. "With its complete and comprehensive view of all coding and noncoding miRNA, researchers gain greater access to the entire miRNA spectrum--from human to model organisms, at a competitive price.”


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