Agilent Expands Catalog of SureFISH Break-Apart Probes

Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced SureFISH ALK, ROS1 and RET break-apart translocation probes, expanding its offering of oligonucleotide-based fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) products. Agilent now offers more than 450 FISH probes.

The majority of FISH probes available on the market use BAC technology. BAC probes target repeat regions, and probe choices are limited by BAC availability.

As a result, these probes often show nonspecific signals, target sequences outside the region of interest, and have suboptimal signal strength.

Because Agilent SureFISH probes use high-fidelity oligos designed in silico, the probes are repeat-free and able to target specific sequences of interest.

In addition, Agilent's oligo-based probes have complete flexibility in both size and number of oligos per region.

For ALK, ROS1 and RET probes, Agilent has fine-tuned the probe size and oligo density to give brighter, more balanced signals than BACs.

For ALK and RET break-aparts, Agilent used a unique micro-gap design to minimize distance between child probes, enabling tight signal co-localization.

"Our new ALK, RET and ROS1 break-apart SureFISH probes are designed to provide brighter, more balanced and better co-localized signals than similar probes on the market today," said Jacob Thaysen, vice president and general manager for Agilent's Diagnostics and Genomics business. "This enables quicker and more accurate detection of translocation events."

Customers can find and purchase SureFISH probes on the Agilent Genomics website, which enables them to search for probes based on chromosome location, cytoband or genes of interest.

The chromosome browser also includes hybridization images, allowing users to see the probe performance prior to purchase.