Ambry Genetics last week launched its CancerArray, an exon-focused, 180,000-probe array for comparative genomic hybridization. The new chip offers genome-wide probe coverage at an average resolution of 20 kb with higher-density coverage in more than 400 known cancer-associated genes, according to the Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based firm.
Ardy Arianpour, Ambry's vice president of business development, said that the clinical laboratory expects to see "high demand" for the new array "due to the increasing amount of translational oncology research being conducted by biotech and pharmaceutical companies and academic research groups."
The content for the array was partially drawn from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's Cancer Gene Census, a catalogue of genes for which mutations have been causally implicated in cancer, Ambry said. The chip is being made available to researchers as a service through the firm's lab.
Asper Biotech has updated its array-based test for Sensorineural Hearing Loss. The new version includes four additional genes – KCNQ4, TCM1, MYO15A, MYO7A — as well as a 232-kilobase deletion from GJB6 [del(GJB6-D13S1854)]. In total, the new SNHL microarray analyzes 11 genes – GJB2, GJB6, GJB3, SLC26A5, SLC26A4, MTNR1, MTTS1, KCNQ4, TCM1, MYO15A, MYO7A – and detects 246 mutations compared to 198 mutations in the earlier version.