Affymetrix this week began shipping its Gene Profiling Reagents. Affy also announced the availability of its Gene Profiling Array cGMP U133 P2, a version of its Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array.
According to the company, the new products were developed to accelerate test development cycles. The new tools are manufactured under current good manufacturing practices and are compliant with the International Organization for Standardization's 13485 standard. Additionally, the reagents have been cleared for in vitro diagnostic use in the US and CE-marked as IVD medical devices for sale in the European Union.
The US Food and Drug Administration cleared Affy's reagents for clinical use in May (BAN 5/10/2011).
Phalanx Biotech has launched its Rice Genome OneArray for gene-expression profiling. The Rice OneArray contains 22,003 long-oligonucleotide probes engineered to meet specific isothermal requirements for hybridization performance and demonstrates high correlation with quantitative PCR, the Taiwanese firm claimed.
Moreover, the Rice OneArray was specifically designed from the RGAP 6.1 and BGI v2008 databases for the Japonica and Indica varieties of Oryza sativa/. This design provides comprehensive coverage against well-annotated Gene Ontology categories including cell growth and maintenance, protein biosynthesis, defense response, transcription, and metabolism.
Shengwan Lee, president and CEO, in a statement called Phalanx a "strong proponent of agricultural research" and said it plans to develop expression microarrays for additional crops.
CTGT last week released 16 new tests for mutations, deletions, or duplications in genes related to connective tissue disorders.
The menu includes tests for arterial calcification, generalized, of infancy; cutis laxa, autosomal dominant; cutis laxa, autosomal recessive, type I; geleophysic dysplasia, Rickets, hypophosphatemic, autosomal recessive, 2; achondrogenesis, type IA; brittle cornea syndrome; ectopia lentis, isolated, autosomal recessive; Ellis-van Creveld syndrome; Stuve-Wiedemann syndrome; Treacher Collins syndrome 2; Treacher Collins syndrome 3; Trichorhinophalangeal syndrome, type I; Trichorhinophalangeal syndrome, type III; and Weyers acrofacial dysostosis.
The bulk of the new tests are run on CTGT's High-Density Targeted Array for copy number variation detection. The HDT array is manufactured by Agilent Technologies.
Anagnostics now offers a saliva-based drugs-of-abuse test. The Hybcell DoA Saliva plexB-1-01 provides semi-quantitative detection of 17 drugs and drug classes, such as the opioid fentanyl, Methylphenidate (Ritalin), the pain reliever tramadol, and zolpidem (Ambien).
The automated process takes less than 20 minutes using St. Valentin, Austria-based Anagnostics' HybBorg cylindrical microarray platform. It was developed from an existing urine-based drugs-of-abuse assay the firm developed.
"Due to the different sample matrix and the different drug concentration levels in saliva the test uses a different analysis protocol and different ranges and cut-offs," CEO Markus Jaquemar told BioArray News this week.