NanoString Technologies will introduce three new kits for the nCounter Analysis System, a completely automated, simple-workflow, multi-purpose digital detection and counting system, at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting to be conducted from March 31, to April 4, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois.
The three new products are the nCounter Plex2 Expression Assay Kit, the nCounter Cancer Copy Number Assay Kit, and the nCounter Human v2 miRNA Expression Assay Kit. These kits speed up sample output for validation studies, improve copy number analyses utilizing FFPE archival samples, and offer the most recent content for human microRNA assays.
The nCounter Plex2 Expression Assay Kit improves the nCounter system’s throughput four times by multiplexing in two dimensions utilizing barcodes, across both mRNA targets and samples. This assay kit enables nCounter users to analyze nearly 200 targets in four samples in just one tube, thus allowing more rapid validation analyses with a large number of samples to run in the nCounter system. At present, scientists can run 192 samples in a single day using the standard nCounter system and a maximum of 384 samples in a single day with the inclusion of a second prep station. The Plex2 kit offers specificity, sensitivity and FFPE compatibility equivalent to that of a standard assay of NanoString Technologies.
The nCounter Cancer Copy Number Assay Kit provides accurate analysis of 86 genes, which are usually deleted or amplified in several cancer types such as MYC, BRCA, PTEN, AKT, and PIK3CA. It is improved for FFPE sample analysis and is user-friendly like all other nCounter assays.
The nCounter Human v2 miRNA Expression Assay Kit is an upgraded version of NanoString’s proven miRNA expression kit but with content from miRBase 18. This kit enables researchers to profile 800 most highly expressed miRNAs in one tube and eliminates the necessity for amplification. NanoString Technologies’ nCounter miRNA panels provide better sensitivity and specificity at a reduced cost when compared to microarrays and next-generation sequencing.