A FREELY-downloadable white paper from Plexpress discusses the various gene expression analysis technologies now commercially available, in order says the company to “help scientists make an informed choice”.
Plexpress has its own high-throughput gene expression analysis platform, called Trac, which is one of those discussed in the document.
The white paper, ‘Gene expression analysis: a review’, compares and contrasts the technical requirements and time and cost implications of various methods, including qRT-PCR, microfluidic PCR, array qPCR, focused probe microarrays (Illumina), magnetic bead assays (Panomics), molecular bar-coding, QNTP(HTG), and Trac.
Plexpress says the 12-page document, downloadable as a PDF, was written in response to the growing trend to use gene expression as the biomarker of choice.
Particular emphasis is placed on a recent US FDA draft report which suggests that measurement of CYP mRNA is the best method for pre-clinical drug Adme-Tox studies (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicology).
The report acknowledges that selecting the best technology for a specific project can be challenging, especially in a fast-moving field such as genomic expression. Many new technologies have emerged in the last decade, including Trac (transcript analysis with aid of affinity capture), and for many researchers the challenge may be to establish the best balance between multiplex analysis (number of genes) and project depth (number of samples).