NEW HAVEN, Conn., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Molecular Staging Inc. (MSI) today announced that the Broad Institute has chosen MSI’s REPLI-g(TM) whole genome amplification technology in order to expand the amount of DNA available from over 20,000 patient samples. The number of genetic markers being used in studies is rapidly increasing, and scientists are finding that the amount of available DNA is often not sufficient to do all of the experiments they need.
MSI offers a range of whole genome amplification products and services that can extract and amplify the entire human genome many thousand fold with unmatched accuracy in a few simple steps. As a result, scientists can now undertake large projects with less than a drop of blood from each clinical patient. The technology is particularly valuable for clinical researchers with banked samples for whom the option of returning to a patient for an additional blood draw is either prohibitively expensive or impossible.
“We believe that this whole genome amplification technology will fundamentally change the way scientists approach how they collect, store and manage precious patient samples,” said Joel Hirschhorn, M.D., a member of the Broad Institute and Assistant Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. “We evaluated the technology with a number of our collaborators and found that the amplified DNA gave very accurate and reliable results for both genotyping and sequencing. We chose REPLI-g whole genome amplification because it allows us to do large scale genomic studies, and in general the amplified DNA was of a better and more consistent quality than the unamplified DNA extracted with routine sample preparation methods.”
The Broad (rhymes with “code”) Institute is known officially as The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute. It is a research collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The Broad’s mission is to fulfill the promise of genomics for medicine. More information is available at http://www.broad.mit.edu/.
Molecular Staging Inc. (MSI) has developed a range of transformational products and services based on its advanced amplification technologies. These products and services include REPLI-g(TM) whole genome amplification kits and services, a rapid, reliable method of generating unlimited DNA from a few cells to address DNA constraints arising from the rapid growth in volume and variety of genetic tests. MSI has also developed an integrated proteomics chip based discovery service, which offers a powerful new way to identify individual and multiplexed sets of biomarkers to enable new, more effective drugs and diagnostics.
Additional information about MSI can be found at http://www.molecularstaging.com/
Molecular Staging Inc.
CONTACT: Jennifer Joiner, Molecular Staging, +1-203-772-5000
Web site: http://www.molecularstaging.com/
