Dr Francisco
Quintana from the Center for Neurologic Diseases at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, is using Tecan microarray solutions as part of a
systems biology approach to studying the immune response in multiple sclerosis. The
laboratory has developed antigen and reverse phase protein microarrays for a
wide range of studies, as Dr Quintana explained: "We construct microarrays
using proteins, peptides or lipids of interest, and hybridize these with
samples from either MS patients or animal models of disease using a HS
4800
TM Pro hybridization station. The arrays are read with a PowerScanner
TM and
analyzed with the help of Tecan's software to identify potential biomarkers for
MS, elucidate mechanisms of pathogenesis and ascertain which signaling pathways
are activated in response to therapeutic interventions."
"Automation
was a major consideration when assessing microarray instruments as, although we
were already performing a majority of these studies manually, automation
reduces the ‘noise' inherent in manually processed experiments. This helps to
improve the quality of results and simplify data interpretation. Coupling the
HS Pro with the walkaway operation provided by the PowerScanner gives us the
capacity we need, without causing an excessive drain on resources,"
To
find out more on Tecan's microarray solutions, visit www.tecan.com/microarray
