Microarrays Aim for Center Stage
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Accepted in discovery, microarrays are paving the way for biomarker development and eventually, molecular diagnostics.
You may also be interested in...
How Experimental Medicine Is Affecting Big Pharma
Big Pharma is rethinking the clinical trials process, establishing tighter links between clinical R&D and discovery. The buzzword is experimental medicine--a catchall for the set of tools and clinical strategies used to determine whether hitting a drug target modulates a disease process in a therapeutically useful way. By so doing, companies hope to reign in clinical costs--the bulk of drug development expenses--by avoiding massive drilling into what prove to be dry drug development holes. To some, experimental medicine is also a process to create a bridge between discovery research and clinical R&D--a large task given that they hold different mindsets.
Nanosphere Inc.
Gold nanoparticles studded with oligonucleotides form the basis of Nanosphere Inc.'s molecular detection systems. The company claims its lead product can rapidly detect SNPs from a blood sample without PCR and with minimal preparation. Nanosphere has no intentions of entering the discovery arena or of collecting the kinds or volumes of data typical for high-density microarrays: it will develop assays only for clinically validated biomarkers.
Spectral Genomics Inc.
Spectral Genomics Inc., aims to become one of the first, if not the first, to bring a diagnostic microarray through to FDA approval. Spectral belives its BAC clone arrays offer major advantages in detecting large scale chromosomal amplifications, deletions and rearrangements characteristic of cancers and many congenital defects. The speed and universality of the arrays make them potentially practical for low-cost, high-speed, and targeted diagnostic purposes.