Applied Biosystems solution to ‘simplify workflows’

Applied Biosystems claims its new small RNA expression analysis solution, which has been optimised for its SOLiD System, enables scientists to rapidly discover and profile novel small RNA molecules without requiring prior knowledge of sequence information.

Representatives for the firm explained that the SOLiD Small RNA Expression Kit includes a multiplexing technology (also known as barcoding) that enables the simultaneous analysis of up to 256 biological samples in a single sequencing run.

They noted that research related to the roles that small non-coding RNA molecules play in living cells is one of the fastest-growing areas in biology, with scientists analysing large numbers of biological samples to shed light on basic biology as well as complex diseases such as cancer.

"As scientists learn more about the key roles that small RNAs play in biological systems, the SOLiD platform will be integral to enabling new approaches for gene expression analysis," remarked Shaf Yousaf, president for Applied Biosystems’ molecular and cell biology genomic analysis division.

"This new small RNA analysis kit, equipped with multiplexing capability, will accelerate these research studies and enable them to be conducted in a more efficient and cost-effective manner," added the representative.

Expected to simplify workflows and reduce the experimental time and cost of applications such as studying the function of small RNA molecules, the new multiplexing technology enables researchers to pool multiple libraries of nucleic acid fragments, thereby reducing the number of emulsion PCR reactions.