Invitrogen Licenses Technology for Fluorescent microRNA Labeling Kits

Using Genisphere Inc.'s (Hatfield, PA, USA) 3DNA dendrimer signal amplification technology, Invitrogen Corp. (Carlsbad, CA, USA) will become the exclusive provider of fluorescent microRNA (miRNA) microarray labeling kits, according to a new license agreement. Genisphere's technology is combined with Invitrogen's Alexa Fluor fluorescent dyes and commercialized in the new NCode rapid miRNA labeling system, which is available from Invitrogen.

Genisphere's 3DNA dendrimer technology is based on highly branched DNA structures serving as scaffolds for multitudes of fluorescent dyes. As a class, dendrimers are complex, branched molecules built from interconnected natural or synthetic monomeric subunits. A 3DNA dendrimer is constructed from DNA monomers, as the name "3DNA” indicates.

Each 3DNA monomer is composed of two DNA strands that share a region of sequence complementarily located in the central portion of each strand. When the two strands anneal to form the monomer the resulting structure has a central double-stranded "waist” bordered by four single-stranded "arms.” This waist plus arms structure comprises the basic 3DNA monomer.

"Our new kit accelerates the discovery of novel miRNA biomarkers by reducing the amount of time scientists must invest to detect miRNAs. In addition, we have increased sensitivity compared to alternative technologies, which can preserve precious samples,” said Peter Welch, director of research and development, gene expression profiling at Invitrogen. "Because miRNAs play a significant role in cancer and in the differentiation of stem cells, discoveries resulting from experiments in those areas could potentially expedite the diagnostics applications of miRNA biomarkers in disease.”


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