NanoString Technologies Signs Second Early–Access Agreement for the nCounter™ Analysis System
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NanoString Technologies has announced the signing of the second Early-Access Agreement for the nCounter Analysis System for digital gene expression with the Genome Sequencing Center at the Washington University School of Medicine.
According to NanoString, the nCounter Analysis System uses a digital technology that enables direct multiplexed measurement of gene expression, including detection of fractional fold change differences.
The technology uses molecular barcodes and single molecule imaging to detect and count hundreds of transcripts in a single reaction. The fully automated system is suited for researchers seeking to validate gene expression signatures, working with small amounts of starting material or studying defined gene sets.
The nCounter Analysis System at Washington University will be utilized first for a large-scale diabetes study by Dr. James Cheverud to validate the expression of over 50 genes across 15 tissues in over 900 samples.
“We chose the nCounter Analysis System because of the high quality of data generated from the system and the fact that we couldn’t do this study with competing methods,” said Dr. James Cheverud. “If we wanted to perform this study with QPCR it would have been over 55,000 individual reactions. We can complete the entire study on the nCounter Analysis System in about 900 reactions and in a fraction of the time.”
The system will be placed in the technology development laboratory led by Dr. Elaine Mardis, Co-Director of the Genome Sequencing Center at the Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Seth Crosby, Director of Translational Research at the Center, spearheaded the placement.
Dr. Crosby said, “We believe the nCounter Analysis System will be an ideal complement to the whole genome microarray services we offer. The system is easy to use, and the quality of data we have received so far from NanoString is impressive. We have every reason to believe the data we will generate will be of equally high quality.”
The nCounter Analysis System is comprised of a fully automated sample prep station, a digital analyzer, the CodeSet (molecular barcodes) and all other reagents needed to perform the analysis. The CodeSets can assay hundreds of gene transcripts per reaction. The system has been designed to perform the analysis on a touch screen.
