The licensing of Kreatech Biotechnology's labelling technology will allow Agilent to optimise its comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) microarray platform to study formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples.
aCGH is a method for analysing the number of mutations (copy number variations) in one DNA sample compared with another and can be used to identify the mutations involved with genetic diseases such as cancer.
The agreement will allow DNA from the estimated 400 million FFPE-preserved tumour samples stored worldwide in tissue banks to be analysed on the company's high resolution microarray systems.
"This new capability holds tremendous promise for cancer researchers," said Jay Kaufman, Agilent's marketing director for Genomics.
"Now researchers can enjoy reproducible results on an oligo microarray platform, looking at old preserved and often degraded samples which are annotated with clinical histories. In many cases, this DNA is only available in a formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded form so the products and methods Agilent is now offering will considerably reduce previous limitations."
Enzymatic labelling procedures can introduce bias while further reducing the DNA fragment size of the already fragmented samples.
Rather than using enzymes, Kreatech's Universal Linkage System (ULS) technology makes use of the stable coordinative binding properties of platinum to nucleic acids and proteins.
This type of binding has been well-characterised due to the development of platinum anticancer therapies such as cisplatin and carboplatin.
The ULS molecule consists of a monofuntional platinum complex that can be coupled to any detectable molecule of choice and forms a stable bond to DNA and RNA at the N7 guanine position.
In proteins the ULS molecule binds to the sulphur-containing side chains of methionine and cysteine and a nitrogen atom in histidine.
The automated use of the technology in conjunction with the Agilent microarray system was recently highlighted by researchers form the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in an article published in the journal BMC Cancer .
The researchers found that by automating the aCGH on archived FFPE samples the ULS-labelled DNA outperformed all of their manual methods "with respect to accuracy, reproducibility, ease of handling and speed".