Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Tissue homogenisation
Optimised amounts of ceramic, steel or glass beads prefilled in 2 ml screw-cap tubes are used to homogenise different tissue types on the MagNALyzer (Roche Diagnostics)

 

Automated electrophoresis tool for DNA and RNA sample quality control
the microfluidics-based automated platform enables the unattended analysis of size, concentration and integrity.

 

Assay design
Design of various real-time PCR formats for detection of DNA, mRNA or small RNAs like miRNA etc. Either probe-based formats (molecular beacons, TaqMan probes, TaqMan probes incorporating Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) monomers, TaqMan minor groove binder probes) or fluorogenic double-stranded DNA-binding dye-based formats can be offered.

 

Automated liquid handling
Profiling of nucleic acid sequences can be cost-efficiently performed on the 384-well microtiter plate format using the epMotion® 5075 LH (Eppendorf) for automated liquid handling and the high-accuracy/sensitivity of qPCR for qualitative or quantitative detection. epMotion-Song (Video)

 

Low density RNA profiling
Up to 384 mRNA or miRNA can be quantified on custom TaqMan Low Density Arrays (TLDAs, Applied Biosystems)

 

PCR/Melting Curve Analysis
Q
ualitative sequence detection is used for example to identify pathogens or to determine the sex of higher mammals etc

Publication:
Identification of two GH18 chitinase family genes and their use as targets for detection of the crayfish-plague oomycete Aphanomyces astaci, BMC Microbiology

High-resolution amplicon melting (HRM)
a closed-tube method for rapid analysis of genetic variation within PCR amplicons. Applications include mutation detection, SNP typing, pre-sequence scanning, or methylation analysis.

 

Safe DNA Gel Electrophoresis
UV light is a major DNA-damage agent causing frame shifts and reducing the cloning efficiency. Blue light LEDs developed for the use of non ethidium bromide dyes are as sensitive as UV light but they won't damage the DNA separated in an agarose gel and protect your skin and eyes. A comparison of ​the biologically safer dyes​ Midori Green and ​GelGreenTM is presented here.

 

Quantification of SNP sequence variants
ARMS- or REMS-qPCR allow quantification of SNP allelic frequencies down to 0.1 and 0.02%, respectively.

Publications:
Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy in ovine fetuses and sheep cloned by somatic cell nuclear transfer, BMC Developemental Biology
A Recurrent STAT5BN642H Driver Mutation in Feline Alimentary T Cell Lymphoma, Cancers

Digital PCR
Digital technology has made its way into PCR, allowing researchers to perform absolute quantification of a target sequence by simply counting the number of reactions that contain a positive signal.

Publication:
S100A4 mRNA-protein relationship uncovered by measurement noise reduction

Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis
the nanoparticle tracking instrument ZetaView® captures the Brownian motion of viruses, virus-like particles, exosomes, or other extracellular vesicles to determine their hydrodynamic diameter (range: 15 nm to 5 μm), concentration, surface charge, and phenotype characteristics.

 

Single-cell analysis
Analysis of nucleic acid sequences in a single cell can be performed in a microtiter plate format following cell sorting by flow cytometry. 

Next-Generation sequencing
Analysis by next-generation sequencing (NGS), for example based on sequencing by synthesis technology of Illumina, is outsourced to sequencing facility partners.

Publication:
The Orthology Clause in the Next Generation Sequencing Era: Novel Reference Genes Identified by RNA-seq in Humans Improve Normalization of Neonatal Equine Ovary RT-qPCR Data

Reference gene selection for normalization of RT-qPCR expression data
Reverse transcription–quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) represents a widely accepted technique for measuring transcript abundance. It is simple, highly sensitive, reproducible, and applicable at low to moderate through-put. In order to estimate expression data accurately without non-biological technical error (including sampling error), the RT-qPCR results require correction against a set of “normalizers”. As pointed out in the minimum information for publication of RT-qPCR experiments (MIQE) guidelines, normalization against a set of reference genes (previously termed house-keeping genes) is not recommended unless clear evidence of their constitutive expression is demonstrated for the experimental condition. We will devise an appropriate normalization strategy for a particular experimental context based on common statistical algorithms for stability assessment.