Oxford Gene Technology IP Ltd (OGT) launches its first microarray product

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) has launched its first microarray product, an Escherichia coli K12 Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) on chip. The OGT Chip2 E. coli K12 microarray has been developed in collaboration with Professor Steve Busby at the University of Birmingham, UK and is the first ChIP microarray product to be launched as part of a OGT’s Prokaryotic Chip2 family.

OGT Chip2 microarrays can be used to identify the binding positions of any DNA binding proteins in a cell; analyse specific changes under various environmental conditions; as a model system to further understand gene regulation; or to reveal potential therapeutic targets against a prokaryotic species.

Each OGT Chip2 microarray is fabricated using OGT’s ink-jet in-situ synthesis (IJISS) platform and interrogates the whole E. coli K-12genome with a probe density of22,000 oligonucleotide features. ChIP microarray data generated can then be analysed in relation to its relative gene position using an OGT developed ChIP browser, reducing the time taken to analyse the data.

Dr Mike Evans, CEO of OGT, said: “This is a very exciting time for OGT. We have expanded our business focus to include the development of microarray based products and Chip2 E.coli K12 is the first of our family of chip products that we are developing. This is the only E.coli ChIP on chip product available on the market, proven by leading scientists, that provides a rapid way of identifying novel genomic data”.

Professor Steve Busby, Principal Investigator, University of Birmingham, said: “We are delighted that our collaboration with OGT has led to the development of a ChIP product. The ChIP on chip method means that we can analyse much more information in a cost-effective and efficient way.”