User:
Jose Royo, Andalusian Center for Development Biology, Spain
Project:
Determining the role of genetic variations in the development of human diseases and using this information to develop better drug targets
Problem:
Royo's group, then at Spanish biotech start-up Neocodex, had no SNP genotyping platform, so sequencing was affordable on the low scale, and he generally ran 5-15 SNPs in 1,000-2,000 samples. However, when medium-throughput projects arose, Royo's group faced the problem of genotyping 50-200 SNPs in 500 samples. "The investment in labeled oligos increased significantly the cost per sample," Royo writes in an E-mail, because they were faced with designing a different labeled primer for each SNP, the label being the most costly.
Solution:
Royo's group developed a "universal" labeled primer whose complementary sequence was incorporated as a 5ˊ tail of the specific primers (Nat Protoc, 2:1734-9, 2007). The protocol solves the problem and costs associated with labeling specific ...
