Genaissance Pharmaceuticals has launched its Familion test for cardiac channelopathies. The test confirms the presence of mutations known to cause these life-threatening conditions, which include Long QT and Brugada Syndromes. There are five of these mutations.
Before Familion was released, cardiologists identified individuals at risk for channelopathies by performing an electrocardiogram — which is “difficult and may be overlooked,” Genaissance said.
Besides developing the test as a diagnostic tool for pediatric cardiologists and electrophysiologists, Genaissance said it hopes to sell the product along with the company’s haplotype technology to drug makers, which would use the test in clinical trials as a way to avoid drug-induced Long QT problems.
Drugs known to increase an individual’s risk of developing a prolonged QT interval include certain antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamines, diuretics, cardiac drugs, antihypercholesterolemia drugs, insulin, antifungals, and antipsychotics.
Read more about the Familion test in the 4/8/04 PGx Reporter.
Qiagen has released Version 3.0 of its Array-Ready Oligo Set for the rat genome. The product contains 26,962 70-mer probes, representing 22,012 genes and 27,044 gene transcripts, the company said.
The new Rat AROS uses data from the Ensembl Rat 19.3b.2 database, which is based on the Rat Genome Sequencing Project.