Agilent Technologies Adds Custom miRNA Capability to Online Microarray Design Tool

gilent Also Updates Human, Mouse miRNA Microarrays

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), today announced the release of eArray 5.4 online microarray design tool, which enables users to design custom microRNA (miRNA) microarrays. miRNA is a rapidly emerging field of study because researchers are increasingly associating these abundant molecules with some types of cancers, heart disease, other disorders and stem-cell differentiation.

Researchers can use Agilent’s pre-designed human, mouse or rat miRNA probes, or access miRNA sequences for all 87 species in Sanger 12.0 in the designs of their miRNA microarrays.

Agilent also announced updates to its human and mouse microarrays, miRNA Release 12.0, which contain the latest probes from Sanger miRBASE 12.0 database. Like all Agilent miRNA microarrays, these include about 15,000 features and are printed eight-arrays-per-slide.

“The miRNA community is eager to profile more miRNAs as they become available in the public domain, and we’re enabling researchers to do this rapidly on a proven microarray platform with robust, user-friendly protocols,” said Sangita Parikh, Agilent miRNA product manager.

eArray enables users to design custom microarrays by choosing from Agilent-optimized probes, uploading their own sequences or designing new probes using eArray tools. When the array design is complete, the file is uploaded to Agilent where the ink-jet-based SurePrint fabrication can print any probes at any location. Sixty mer oligos provide a high level of sensitivity. Delivery of the finished microarrays can be made in two weeks. eArray also enables researchers to collaborate on designs from remote locations.