TargetAmpTM: A Linear RNA Amplification System for Expression Arrays

Microarray and RNA-seq are the most prevalent methods to reveal a comprehensive picture of a transcriptome.  These two methods complement each other in transcriptome profiling. Use of DNA microarray expressions is an established method for assessing gene expression on a genome wide scale for almost two decades now. The requirement for relatively large amounts of RNA for gene expression analysis limits the application of microarray technology when sample amounts are limited, e.g. in studies involving laser capture micro dissection, needle biopsies etc.  Epicentre’s TargetAmp aRNA amplification kits use an optimized, streamlined version of Eberwine techonolgy to overcome the problem of input RNA limitation by linearly amplifying the mRNA component of Total RNA.  TargetAmp methodology demonstrates good correlation between samples before and after amplification, and also shows that the overall bias introduced by T7-based amplification is uniformly low, and that the results are reproducible.  This amplification methodology also generates high-fidelity, amplified antisense RNA that is suitable for use in microarray analysis. Results obtained from varying experiments demonstrate successful use of low input amounts of total RNA on the BeadChips (Illumina) arrays. TargetAmp offers multiple labeling options for different microarray platforms.