NCode miRNA Microarray Offers Complete, Integrated Solution For miRNA Profiling

Platform Enables Researchers to Profile All Known miRNAs from Humans Plus Additional Human Predicted miRNAs and Most Studied Genomes

CARLSBAD, CA - Invitrogen Corporation, a leading life sciences company with a broad portfolio of technologies to improve and accelerate biomedical research, drug discovery and commercial bioproduction, today introduced its NCode microRNA (miRNA) Microarray platform.

The NCode miRNA profiling platform enables sensitive profiling of miRNAs while using extremely simple methods that provide both experienced and novice microarray users a rapid path to new discoveries. NCode permits researchers to study miRNA function by allowing researchers to profile the miRNA expression patterns in a given disease or developmental state.

miRNAs are a class of recently discovered RNAs that do not serve as templates for protein synthesis. They play a significant role in gene regulation and research has suggested that miRNAs regulate up to 30 percent of human genes, including those linked with cancer, infectious disease, and development.

Because of their different physical traits, miRNAs require modified sample preparation and profiling methods from previous DNA microarray experiments. The NCode Multi-Species miRNA Array Platform enables researchers to profile all known miRNAs from humans, plus additional human predicted miRNAs, mouse, rat, Drosophila, c.elegans, and zebrafish -- making it the broadest miRNA research tool available.

"miRNAs appear to play diverse roles in critical processes like oncogenesis, stem cell differentiation, and host-pathogen interactions," said Peter Welch, Ph.D., R&D Director for Gene Regulation at Invitrogen. "The promise of discovering superior predictors of disease and developing treatments for currently non-druggable targets has certainly captured the interest of academia and the pharmaceutical industry. We hope to accelerate research findings in these areas by providing an integrated solution that delivers the sensitivity, specificity, and coverage that the research community needs."

Work with miRNAs has already begun to play a critical role in moving neural stem cell research forward toward therapies.

"We've found distinct patterns of miRNA expression in differentiating neural stem cells, consistent with a regulatory role for miRNAs in both neurogenesis and gliogenesis," explained Ron Hart, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University. "Having the ability to use sensitive microarrays to survey full sets of miRNAs in neural stem cells during differentiation both in culture and in vivo allowed us to detect novel patterns of regulated miRNAs systematically."

"Several individual miRNAs have already proven requisite for differentiation of specific cell types," Dr. Hart added. "Understanding these unexpected regulatory mechanisms provides novel targets for potentially managing or controlling differentiation in stem cells prior to therapeutic transplant."

SOURCE: Invitrogen Corporation