Agilent microarrays utilised in groundbreaking prenatal study

Agilent Technologies has announced that its SurePrint CGH microarrays have been utilised by US scientists in groundbreaking prenatal medical research.

Scientists from Emory University, Baylor College of Medicine, Columbia University and Signature Genomics collaborated to produce the 'Chromosomal microarray versus karyotyping for prenatal diagnosis' study, which has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Customised products developed by Agilent were used to demonstrate that microarray analysis is able to detect smaller aberrations than is possible using traditional karyotyping.

A total of 5,500 arrays were used in the trial, with the majority of the samples composed of uncultured amniotic fluid and chorionic villi.

Robert Schueren, vice-president and general manager of Agilent's genomics solutions division, said: "We are honoured to have participated in this landmark study, furthering technology adoption for improved discovery."

Earlier this month, the company said it will be allying with WiCell to provide a new comparative genomic hybridisation plus single nucleotide polymorphism microarray analysis service, using Agilent's existing systems.