Molecular Genetics Core Facility at Children’s Hospital Boston Selects HybSelect from febit for Targeted Resequencing

20 Jan 2010
Sarah Sarah
Marketing / Sales

The Molecular Genetics Core Facility (MGCF) at Children’s Hospital Boston chose febit’s HybSelect technology which will enable genetics researchers to conduct the highly economic targeted enrichment of genes of interest for resequencing. In January the core facility will be receiving the Geniom RT Analyzer® from febit to perform HybSelect.

“We feel that febit’s HybSelect technology will be a powerful tool for our researchers, in conjunction with our Applied Biosystems SOLiD platform, at a reasonable cost,” said Hal Schneider, Core Manager of the MGCF. “The ease and flexibility of HybSelect allows us to study a variety of genetic diseases and multiplex bar-coded libraries, making sequence capture projects much more accessible and affordable for our investigators.”

The economy of HybSelect increases the potential for widespread use of next generation sequencing in clinical studies. Instead of sequencing the complete genomes of only a few patients, HybSelect enables the analysis of specific genes of interest from large patient cohorts for the same price and data management effort. The larger patient pool now provides the statistically relevant data that are necessary for clinical studies.

Peer Staehler, CSO at febit, said: “Targeted enrichment and multiplexing are necessary to truly benefit from the advantages of high performance sequencers, and febit has developed HybSelect to meet this need. Together with Life Technologies’ SOLiD 3, HybSelect can sequence 16 parallel samples in one run. febit is currently working on an upgrade to a 96-plex barcode set. This will enable sequencing of 2,304 samples in six working days.”

Geniom RT Analyzer

febit holding GmbH

The Geniom® RT Analyzer is designed for the automated processing of microarray experiments. It uses microfluidic Geniom Biochips for a wide range of applications. All-in-one instrumentThe Geniom RT Analyzer is a hybridization oven, a wash station, a shaker and a scanner in one instrument. Sample loading, hybridization, washing, precise temperature control, staining and detection are fully automated. There is no need for many instruments. Also the experimental workflow is much easier when you have several instruments integrated into one instrument (exact timing, exact pipetting control, minimal hands-on time). The software for the Geniom RT Analyzer is intuitive and easy to use. Users can either run experiments with pre-installed programs from febit or write new programs with ease. The Geniom RT Analyzer works with a precise temperature control for optimal hybridization. A pressurized system allows the automated sample movement through the microchannels of the biochips with accurate timing. This automated back and forth moving of the sample during the hybridization increases the sensitivity and stringency while reducing hybridization time Automation Through the fluidic control within the microfluidic biochips, automation is possible for the whole hybridization experiment. Consequently very short hands-on time is needed for you doing a hybridization experiment. Only buffer, reagent tubes and sample tubes have to be positioned in the right place. Sample loading and hybridization, washing, shaking and detection are done automatically. The Geniom RT Analyzer software has program steps for loading, hybridization, washing and shaking. For many experiments febit provides software profiles with these program steps for the Geniom RT Analyzer. The software is also intuitive and enables you to write your own experiment profiles with ease. You can drag and drop the program steps and can change the variables like time and temperature during this step. A CCD camera can be programmed to generate detection pictures. You import these pictures in a software tool for analyzing the microarray experiment. The microarray experiment with the Geniom RT Analyzer needs only short hands-on time. This increases your productivity, because you have more time for other research work. Reproducibility Because of the automation of the microarray experiment with the Geniom RT Analyzer it is very reproducible. The timing, the pipetting volumes and the incubation temperatures in each experiment are exactly the same. This is enabled by the microfluidic Geniom Biochip from febit.

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