ALACHUA, Fla., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- EcoArray, Inc. announced today the release of its 22,000-gene microarray in Fathead minnows designed for research and use in environmental toxicology. The array is available immediately. It is manufactured by Agilent Technologies using its custom oligonucleotide microarray platform.
EcoArray’s President, John Rogers, said, “This array marks a step forward in bringing this important technology to the world of environmental toxicology. The Fathead minnow is an important species in water testing, and the FHM22k is the first large array constructed in this species on a high- quality platform. This follow-on to our original research with the EPA will make robust and repeatable gene research a reality. There is also strong market potential in compound screening, where a broad-based, economical screen for potential toxic characteristics is sorely needed.”
Dr. Patrick Larkin, EcoArray’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, “We are pleased to offer this array to industry and the research community. We have carefully selected and analyzed the genes that make up this array. We are happy to have found in Agilent a platform that provides the high quality and repeatability we believe will be the foundation of a valuable toxicogenomic database for use in evaluating many different compounds.”
Microarrays are well established in human disease research. They are becoming widely used in ecotoxicology research, and are showing early promise in environmental testing and compound screening. The EPA is studying the use of microarrays for risk assessment and site evaluation and collaborated with EcoArray in the development of EcoArray’s first Fathead minnow microarray in 2005.
Microarrays are a valuable research tool for detecting ecological exposures to chemicals present in the environment that can cause subtle changes in gene expression in fish found at polluted sites. Microarrays hold the promise of detecting these changes quickly and inexpensively. Since different chemicals affect genes differently, there is a pattern of expression, or genetic fingerprint, which can indicate which chemicals are affecting fish or other animals living at a polluted site.
EcoArray is a privately held genomics company located near Gainesville, Florida. EcoArray specializes in environmental testing using genomics and has developed microarrays in several environmentally significant species. In addition, the Company provides gene discovery and a variety of laboratory services which are described at its web site, ecoarray.com.
CONTACT: EcoArray, Inc. John B. Rogers, President (386) 418-4025, (352) 514-9402 mobile (386) 462-0875 fax jbrogers@ecoarray.com
EcoArray, Inc.
CONTACT: John B. Rogers, President, EcoArray, +1-386-418-4025, or mobile,+1-352-514-9402, or fax, +1-386-462-0875, or jbrogers@ecoarray.com
Web site: http://www.ecoarray.com/