Axaminer - identifying genetic noise
The Axaminer service developed by Axaron from Heidelberg, Germany, is designed to resolve the complexity of gene expression changes within complex tissues. Such genetic changes underlie many human diseases, and thus represent an opportunity to identify new important targets for drug discovery.
Axaron believes that cell-specific transcription, or expression, profiling as this process is known, will deliver new disease insights to drug discovery companies working in a broad range of therapeutic areas.
Disease-relevant genes are usually rare and often difficult to detect from among the background 'noise' from all the other genetic activity in a tissue at any given moment. As such, Axaron has developed Axaminer to be a custom service to drug discovery companies. It can be used for a number of applications related to improving the speed of the drug discovery process, such as drug target identification, and mode of action studies.
Furthermore, Axaminer offers a number of key benefits in the area of expression profiling in addition to its speed, sensitivity and accuracy. For example, the process requires only very small amounts of starting material, from which specific cells can be identified and isolated; RNA rescued from as few as five cells (50 picograms) can be amplified accurately and reproducibly; and the entire modular process can be automated and is compatible with all major micro-array platforms.
'A significant problem faced by researchers working in many disease areas is that it is difficult to see cell-specific gene regulatory changes when sampling complex tissues or organs. This is because these patterns are masked by the impact of non-relevant cells that do not show these particular regulations. In order to overcome this major problem, we have developed our unique Axaminer technology,' explains Dr Holger Hiemisch, Axaron's director of neuroscience. 'The technology is based on our extensive experience in the field of expression profiling. Axaminer, which is used as a crucial in-house platform within our own CNS drug discovery programme, has already enabled us to generate significant new insights into the causes of a number of major neurological disorders. By making this new service to other companies, we expect them to be in a position to drive forward their own drug discovery activities more efficiently.'