febit announces "PCR on a chip": oligonucleotide arrays with free 3'ends

febit biotech gmbh starts shipping a novel tool for the GENIOM bioanalysis platform - the 3'-Inversed Synthesis Set for GENIOM biochips. This innovative technology enables reverse synthesis of DNA oligonucleotides on the biochip, thus providing a broad spectrum of new applications for DNA microarrays.

For the first time, enzymes can be directly applied in a biochip synergistically exploiting advantages of these diverse biochemical methodologies.

GENIOM allows the highly flexible synthesis of user-specified biochips that can be applied in the same system within one day. This approach provides utmost flexibility of test parameters, a high degree of automation as well as ultra-small volumes due to cutting-edge microfluidics.

The applications of this technology are now greatly expanded by the addition of enzymatic procedures to the GENIOM biochip, a microfluidic reaction carrier: oligonucleotides with a free 3' end are accessible to nucleic acid polymerases. They may serve as primers for polymerase-based assays. This enzyme-on-chip approach shares many features with the widely used PCR technology, thus offering a substantial marketing potential.

Dr. Jörg Hoheisel at the German Cancer Research Institute already started using the new 3'-Inverse Synthesis Set in his research that employs GENIOM as a key tool: "We opted for GENIOM since it provides us with the required flexibility and complete independence from third-party chip providers. Using the novel 3'-Inverse Synthesis Set we are able to pursue a radically new approach: oligonucleotides with any sequence can now be synthesized in 5'-3'direction providing a free 3' end. We use these e.g. for primer extension reactions enhancing the capacity and intensity in detection.”

The 3'-Inverse Synthesis Set is marketed by febit biotech gmbh. As with all GENIOM consumables, the logistics is handled by the renowned Sigma-Aldrich Chemistry Germany.