Qiagen acquires RNAture portfolio
isolation products from Hitachi Chemical Research Centre. The
latest acquisition sees Qiagen purchase an extensive range of
products that addresses high-throughput mRNA purification for gene
analysis.
RNAture's product portfolio focuses on mRNA isolation products and comprises solutions for rapid, efficient and specific capture of cellular poly(A)+ RNA in the wells of specially-treated microplates. The products for medium, high and ultra high-throughput demands are currently marketed under the brand name GenePlate.
The deal places Qiagen at the forefront of products that focus on preanalytical sample preparation. RNAture addresses a segment of an increasingly dominant market, which deals mainly in high-throughput gene expression analysis and siRNA in research and drug development.
GenePlate employs an immobilisation technology to coat surfaces with oligonucleotides, which allow rapid and direct capturing of target mRNA. The direct selection of poly(A)+ RNA provides researchers with a more defined mRNA sample, which leads to improved sensitivity and reproducibility.
The technology allows mRNA isolation, cDNA synthesis and PCR in the same well in three different formats: 8-well stripes, 96-well and 384-well plates. RNAture's products provide an easy-to-use and cost effective method for direct mRNA isolation and cDNA synthesis in an automation-friendly design for simplify high-throughput target validation, gene-expression analysis and compound screening.
Gene Silencing, or RNA interference (RNAi) uses target-specific sequences of short interfering RNA molecules (siRNA molecules) to knock-down, or "silence" targeted genes to infer their function. RNAi is a developing technology used for target validation and compound screening in drug development as well as for studying gene expression analysis in academic and clinical research.
The new product line based on RNAture's purification technology for mRNA also is expected to seamlessly integrate into QIAGEN's broad gene silencing product portfolio. The speed and ease-of-use of mRNA isolation with this technology makes it a perfect tool for simple and reproducible medium- to ultra high-throughput RNAi experiments.
"The technology is highly automation-friendly, minimises well-to-well and plate-to-plate variability and standardises the purification and assay procedure in these applications as preparation and assay are possible in the same plate," said Dr Ulrich Schriek, Qiagen's vice-president corporate business development.
