Identifying tumour gene signatures with TaqMan® Low Density Arrays

The Institut Gustave-Roussy's new Clinical and Translational Research programme in France is using the Applied Biosystems 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System and TaqMan® Low Density Arrays to investigate gene expression patterns in cancer.

The Institut Gustave Roussy is a leading European cancer clinic and research centre that treats over 11,000 new patients a year for a variety of cancers, including paediatric tumours and other rare cancers such as soft tissue and bone sarcomas.

Professor Gilles Vassal, Director of Clinical and Translational Research, explained, "We are currently using microarrays to look at the genetic profiles of over 3,000 samples from breast, colon, melanoma and head and neck cancers. We have a long and successful history of working with Applied Biosystems, and the 7900HT System and TaqMan Low Density Arrays form a key component of our microarray programme. The technology serves as a high quality control method during all the extraction, amplification and hybridisation steps, allowing us to optimise and speed up our expression validation process. Our final goal here is to translate the gene signatures found in different tumour types and apply them to the patients' treatments."