febit announced that an updated version of  the company’s Geniom Biochip containing 58 new discovered sequences in addition to all of the Homo sapiens microRNAs (miRNA) from miRBase version 14 is now available for cancer research. The 58 new miRNA sequences were found by deep sequencing in a miRNA discovery study performed on an Applied Biosystems SOLiD 3 sequencing system. All 58 miRNAs have been validated using the ABI TaqMan miRNA qRT-PCR assay and are now available for further studies using febit’s microarray technology for miRNA-profiling.

 Several studies investigating the role of miRNAs showed evidence for their influence in cell development processes. Recently, promising biomarkers for the future diagnosis and differentiation of lung cancer and multiple sclerosis have been published in BMC Cancer and PLoS ONE. The results demonstrated that miRNA biomarkers reliably distinguish between affected and healthy individuals by analysing whole blood samples. Each miRNA is part of a meaningful pattern giving information about individual regulatory processes. Therefore each miRNA of the Geniom Biochip, from either miRBase 14 or the SOLID sequencing-studies, will be of high scientific impact and can be a potential biomarker candidate or therapeutically relevant molecules.

Peer Staehler, febit’s CSO, said: “After the recent publication of promising results in biomarker discovery febit now enhanced its pipeline with novel, well validated content. febit plans to  develop miRNA and other disease-related biomarkers which will help to detect diseases at early stages, diagnose the disease progression and monitor the response to treatment. In our studies we used whole blood, which is a well established sample source in the diagnostic practice.”

Date: March 1, 2010
Source: febit