Microarray Workstation Eliminates Ozone Effects

Scientists from SciGene (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) and Stanford University (Stanford, Ca, USA) presented results at the LabAutomation 2006 conference from studies using SciGene's BriteSpot microarray workstation to examine the effects of ozone on microarray data. This workstation processes arrays in an ozone-safe environment, eliminating the effects of ozone on array data variability.

The BriteSpot system is one of a series of products being developed by the company to improve sensitivity and reliability of microarrays. Components of the workstation include a bench top heating unit for incubating up to 16 arrays in racks ready for processing, a robotic system that processes up to 24 arrays through five temperature-controlled baths into an integral centrifuge for drying, and a NoZone workspace. This is a sealed enclosure with filtration and monitoring equipment that maintains an ozone-safe environment.

Laboratory levels of ozone can degrade fluorescent dyes commonly used in microarray applications. New studies have shown that the effect of ozone is not uniform and leads to spatial distortion of signals across the arrays. This can lead to errors identifying differentially expressed genes when arrays are processed in the presence of nominal levels of ozone within a laboratory.

SciGene is a privately held company founded in 2003, which provides instruments that are used in process control, automation, and protocol optimization to reduce microarray data errors and to enable researchers to obtain reliable results more rapidly.




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