The X-Treme Sport Of Drug Screening: Xpress-Screen Assay Achieves Quantitative Detection of mRNA For Drug Discovery

Image provided by PE Biosystems Advanced Discovery Sciences Xpress-Screen detection system In high-throughput screening (HTS)-based drug discovery, the task is to create and read enormous libraries, seeking the rare lead that eventually becomes a multibillion-dollar drug. No stone is left unturned in this search, and a multitude of single-molecule detection assays is lined up for every program direction imaginable. Xpress-Screen combines Tropix Inc.'s chemiluminescence technology with the we

Written byJorge Cortese

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Image provided by PE Biosystems Advanced Discovery Sciences

Xpress-Screen detection system

In high-throughput screening (HTS)-based drug discovery, the task is to create and read enormous libraries, seeking the rare lead that eventually becomes a multibillion-dollar drug. No stone is left unturned in this search, and a multitude of single-molecule detection assays is lined up for every program direction imaginable.

Xpress-Screen combines Tropix Inc.'s chemiluminescence technology with the well-known and FDA-approved Digene Hybrid Capture^® system for detection of DNA-RNA hybrids. This assay can measure a two- to threefold change in the level of rare mRNA transcripts present in as few as one to two copies per cell. This results in an effective sensitivity of 0.0017 attomole (1,000 molecules per well), one of the lowest numbers ever reported. Only 100 cells per well are needed to carry out a measurement.

Xpress-Screen can be used to study native mRNA expression in any cell ...

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