Quantum Dots hires sales veteran

Janet Lankard joins the company having held the position of Director of Sales for Affymetrix. Prior to this she was an Executive Sales Account Manager with Applied Biosystems. Lankard will be responsible for leading Quantum Dots newly formed sales team and future product launches.

Her main project will be the successful launch and implementation of the Mosaic System, Quantum Dots​ mid-throughput gene expression assay system that can analyze hundreds of genes per sample. Its sensitivity and throughput enables experiments that were previously impractical or too expensive.

With gene expression analysis real-time quantitative PCR produces detailed results but only a limited gene number can be studied. Though inexpensive when applied to large sample numbers, each assay can test only three or four transcripts simultaneously.

Microarrays, however, sacrifice sample throughput, probing tens of thousands of genes in a single sample. The Mosaic Gene Expression Analysis System claims to enables users to assess expression of 200 or so genes across 384 samples.

Primarily aimed at pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and academic core facilities, the Mosaic system centres on a set of magnetic spheres called Qbead microspheres that are coated with a mix of quantum dots that gives the beads a unique colour. This allows its identification and the specific assay being performed on it. For gene expression studies, the beads are conjugated to gene-specific oligonucleotides that capture homologous, biotin-labelled mRNA's, which are then detected by addition of streptavidin-conjugated quantum dots.

The Qbead approach differs from other addressable bead-based multiplexing systems because, while most such systems are flow-based, the Mosaic system images stationary samples in transparent microtiter plate. This allows much more sensitive data to come back from those beads.