Press Release
Studies Using the BriteSpot™ Microarray Workstation
Show Ozone Distorts Microarray Data
January 22, 2006, Palm Springs, CA — Scientists from SciGene and Stanford University presented results at the LabAutomation 2006 conference from studies using the BriteSpot™ Microarray Workstation to examine the effects of ozone on microarray data.
It is accepted within the microarray community that ozone can degrade signals from Cy5 and other fluorescent dyes commonly used in microarray applications. However, results of these new studies reveal that the effect of ozone is not uniform; leading to a spatial distortion of signals across the arrays. This can lead to errors identifying differentially expressed genes when arrays are processed in the presence of nominal levels of ozone within a laboratory.
The BriteSpot™ Workstation processes arrays in an ozone-safe environment which eliminates the affect of this air pollutant as a source of array data variability. SciGene reports that the BriteSpot™ system is one in a series of products under development by the Company that will improve the sensitivity and reliability of microarrays.
About SciGene
SciGene ( www.scigene.com ) is a privately held company founded in 2003 following the acquisition of genomics and drug discovery research product lines from Robbins Scientific. SciGene provides an integrated suite of instruments that use process control, automation, and protocol optimization to reduce microarray data errors, enabling researchers to more quickly and reliably obtain meaningful results.
