NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Affymetrix today said it is exclusively licensing on a worldwide basis technology from Genisphere for RNA amplification and labeling to address challenging sample types, such as formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded samples, for Affy's GeneChip Arrays.
Genisphere's technology, which it currently supplies to Pathwork Diagnostics for its gene expression-based Tissue-of-Origin Test, allows researchers to access more than 400 million archived normal and tumor FFPE samples that are available for research and retrospective clinical trials, Affy said.
The technology, sold by Genisphere as a kit under the brand name Sensation "is designed for one round of whole transcriptome amplification using 50 [to] 200ng total RNA," according to Genishpere's website
Starting next year, Affy-branded kits based on the technology will become available, providing an "easy-to-use workflow, higher sensitivity, and better reproducibility than other currently available solutions for FFPE RNA analysis," the company said.
"This agreement advances the Affymetrix vision of growing our microarray business within targeted applications where array-based approaches provide more cost-effective solutions, highly accurate data, and the most relevant gene expression content compared to competing technologies," Kevin Cannon, general manager of the Gene Expression Business Unit at Affy, said in a statement.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.