New Pre-validated qPCR Assay Panels Accelerate Mouse Model Research

WOBURN, Mass.–BioTrove, Inc. today announced the launch of the first Mouse Pathways panels available using the OpenArray® Real-Time qPCR System. Genes associated with key disease models have been collected into comprehensive qPCR assay panels for biomedical research. These panels contain a defined set of over 600 optimized, bench-validated assays, allowing researchers to skip the initial steps of gene selection and assay optimization, and begin immediate work on the analyses of commonly-studied mouse gene families involved in animal models of disease states and biochemical pathways. Once genes of interest are identified using these expansive panels, focused experiments can be performed on the same platform to evaluate larger populations.

“Researchers can investigate hypotheses with greater speed now, since the savings in labor and reagents they will see using these panels means they can perform more experiments covering more tissues,” said Kevin Munnelly, Vice President and General Manager of OpenArray. “Using the pre-validated mouse panels, researchers can explore both in vivo and in vitro rodent models for biomedical research yielding a more comprehensive understanding of biochemical processes. Knockout strains that show no phenotypic differences can be investigated more easily by examining affected pathways. And since these panels are also available for human pathways, correlation of the model to human disease is more straightforward. All of this comes with the assurance of ‘ready-to-use,’ qPCR assays that have been optimized for efficiency, specificity and precision.”

The OpenArray Pathways mouse panels available will help researchers investigate and simplify research in multiple disease areas, including:

– Cardiovascular Disease

– Inflammation

– Transcription Factors

“The introduction of Mouse Pathways panels to BioTrove’s qPCR affords researchers the time savings and precision OpenArray Pathways allows,” said Albert A. Luderer, Ph.D., President and CEO, BioTrove. “BioTrove is committed to meeting and anticipating the needs of researchers through continued development of our life science enablement tools.”

With the OpenArray Pathways panels researchers can screen up to four samples against more than 600 genes on a single plate. BioTrove is continuously developing additional Pathways panels and anticipates introducing soon additional mouse and human gene panels as well as rat gene panels to the Pathways family.

For more information on the OpenArray Pathways system, please visit www.BioTrove.com/pathways.

About BioTrove, Inc.

BioTrove, Inc. offers two innovative technology platforms: OpenArray®, which advances genomic research in a wide range of life science fields, including agriculture, disease research, and public health, and RapidFire®, which enables the acceleration of drug discovery and pipeline decisions. With 11 of the top 12 largest biopharmaceutical companies based on global sales as clients, and partnerships with prestigious research and public health centers around the world, BioTrove’s products and services ensure that an industry committed to accuracy and speed can meet business goals.

The OpenArray® Platform enables genomics researchers to generate SNP and real time qPCR data in the hundreds of thousands of data points per day, significantly increasing the number of samples analyzed while significantly decreasing the time and cost required. The flexible format and nanoliter scale of the OpenArray system allows for easy adjustment of sample and assay numbers, achieving economical, high-throughput genomics. Life Technologies globally markets the OpenArray SNP genotyping platform under the TaqMan® OpenArray® SNP Genotyping brand. BioTrove is a licensee of Life Technologies global patent rights related to the real-time thermal cyclers, microfluidics and data analysis.

RapidFire® Mass Spectrometry (RF-MS) feeds samples directly to the mass spectrometer at six to eight seconds per sample, eliminating the bottleneck created by traditional mass spectrometry throughput. RF-MS is routinely used in many applications including the high-throughput screening of previously intractable drug targets, ADME assays and directed evolution studies.