Illumina Introduces Three new Research Products to Study Genetic Variations Linked to Cancer Development
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Illumina, Inc. has announced that it is making available three new product solutions for cancer research, which include expansion of Illumina’s proprietary DASL® Assay to whole-genome profiling, and the launch of DASL focused expression and methylation profiling on Illumina’s VeraCode® technology.
These new solutions allow researchers to leverage synergies across Illumina technology platforms to better understand the complex molecular mechanisms that give rise to cancer.
Illumina’s DASL Assay was specifically designed to successfully profile expression in degraded RNA, such as that found in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers are using whole-genome DASL profiling to identify molecular profiles associated with chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.
“We have a significant number of archived ovarian cancer samples, and this new approach has provided me with a way to finally access the information in these invaluable samples,” said Dr. John Quackenbush. “The DASL assay gives us the ability to obtain consistent, high-quality data from FFPE samples and has opened-up new avenues of investigation that were not previously available to us.”
Finally, using Illumina’s GoldenGate® Assay for Methylation with the VeraCode technology, researchers can now uncover epigenetic modifications in DNA that have significant and widespread effects on gene expression. Researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center have used both the BeadArray™ and VeraCode technologies to examine splice variants.
“Most researchers use their genome-wide array to find the 100 to 500 genes of interest and then build a lower-complexity pool to run on a larger number of samples. I simply moved the same assay over to the VeraCode platform, which used an identical workflow and required no additional design. Reproducibility of data was very high between the two platforms,” said Dr. Brenton Gravely.
“The DASL gene expression and GoldenGate Methylation assays offered across both the BeadArray and VeraCode facilitate the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer,” says Tristan Orpin, Senior Vice President of Illumina’s Commercial Operations.
Orpin continued, “Researchers will need to investigate changes in RNA expression, epigenetic control, and coding and non-coding regions of the genome. Illumina’s new solutions for RNA profiling and methylation will enable researchers to study and validate these changes with a common assay.”
