Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) announced that it was awarded a significant patent for comparative genomic hybridization methods. CGH methods help researchers study genetics and cancer in both basic and clinical research.
The U.S. patent (No. 8,232,055) has claims for measuring copy number changes in genomic DNA, covering both one-color and two-color assays using oligonucleotide probes and samples with high-sequence complexity, such as human genomic DNA samples.
Agilent said itss copy number method, commercially introduced in 2005, uses long oligonucleotide probes, enabling high specificity and sensitivity.
The method was originally developed to improve upon older copy number assays that use long genomic fragments such as bacterial artificial chromosomes. The method also improves upon other oligonucleotide array assays, which depend on sample preparation methods that remove significant portions of the genomic DNA content. Agilent said its higher-resolution platform allows users to detect much smaller genomic aberrations throughout complex genomes.
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