Febit First to Offer Newly Published Mouse Genome on a Chip

Febit holding gmbh announced today the launch of the first biochip on the market covering the newly published whole mouse genome. The biochip from febit enables up-to-date profiling and enrichment of genes and SNPs of interest using Gene Expression Profiling, SNP-Detection, ncRNA analysis as well as targeted enrichment of genes for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS).

Professor Christian Koerner from the University Hospital for Pediatrics in Heidelberg (Germany) and customer of febit’s new mouse biochip, said: “It will be helpful and an advance for our research to use a whole genome microarray based on the most recent data available which have been published only weeks ago. This array allows the performance of a microarray expression profiling as well as a targeted Next-Generation Sequencing at the current state of the art.”

In the near future, Next-Generation Sequencing technologies will lead to a rising number of completed genomes of model organisms and other species of interest, as demonstrated by the updated mouse genome. This accelerated development will generate a variety of tools available in the short term for the application of the new data into experiments. febit’s Geniom® Technology represents the most efficient option for transforming digital genetic sequence information directly into a fully-applicable microarray and sequence capture biochip. The microfluidic biochips and flexible probe synthesis guarantee instant access to the latest sequence updates within only days after publication or request.

New mouse genome assembly
The mouse (mus musculus) is the most important and well-established model for the study of human disease and mammalian development. At the end of May 2009, D.M. Church et al. published in the journal PLoS Biology a complete, high-quality genome assembly that contains over 139 Mb more of novel sequence compared to previously available mouse genome drafts. This brand-new, finished mouse genome, which is now available on febit’s microarrays, closes more than 175,000 gaps, completes the list of protein-coding genes to a number of 20,210 and identifies 439 long, non-coding RNAs. Thus, a complete analysis of protein gene expression, microRNA profiles and expression patterns of long non-coding RNAs is possible and can reveal many previously hidden secrets of mammalian biology and disease processes.