NanoString
Technologies today announced the launch of the Early Access
Program for the nCounter Analysis System for digital gene expression.
NanoString has shipped a system to the first Early Access customer,
Professor Eric Davidson, at the California Institute for Technology and
has begun accepting orders from other customers.
The nCounter Analysis System uses a novel digital technology
that is based on direct multiplexed measurement of gene expression and
offers high levels of sensitivity (500 attomolar) and precision. The
technology uses molecular barcodes and single molecule imaging to
detect and count hundreds of unique transcripts in a single reaction.
The fully automated system is easy to use and is ideally suited for
researchers with small amounts of starting material, customers who
would like to study defined gene sets and microarray users seeking to
validate expression signatures.
“The nCounter Analysis System offers an
unprecedented combination of sensitivity, precision and datapoint
throughput for gene expression analysis. The real benefit for
researchers is that they can effectively interrogate more genes across
more samples, cost effectively and in less time than conventional
methods,” said Alan Dance, Chief Commercial Officer at
NanoString Technologies. “We are delighted that such a
prominent researcher as Dr. Davidson will be our first
customer.”
“We have carried out extensive head-to-head
comparisons between the nCounter System and Quantitative PCR on the
same samples over the last year, and nCounter has the distinct
advantage that more data can be obtained in less time, on less starting
material, without at all compromising data quality,” said Dr.
Eric Davidson, Professor of Cell Biology at California Institute of
Technology. “Highly sensitive and accurate analysis of gene
expression is the fundamental data acquisition step in our
developmental biology research on gene regulatory networks.”
The nCounter Analysis System is comprised of a fully automated
prep station, a digital analyzer, the CodeSet (barcodes) and all of the
reagents and consumables needed to perform the analysis. The CodeSets
can currently assay up to 576 gene targets per reaction, and that
number is expected to increase in the next few months. The system has
been designed to be easy to use and features a step-by-step guide to
perform the analysis on a touch screen.