Work with FFPE and fresh frozen tissue
 Almac Diagnostics' DSA™ research tools have been designed to enable profiling from both frozen and FFPE tissue, to allow application of this unique microarray technology to current clinical practice and retrospective tissue banks.
This can help to reduce discovery timelines, accelerate the validation process and ultimately deliver clinical applications.
Each Cancer DSA™ research tool is designed with a 3' focus providing an optimised platform for the analysis of FFPE samples. RNA extracted from FFPE samples tends to have a shorter median transcript length and the detection of these samples on generic arrays is highly unstable and non-reproducible. By designing probe sets specific to the 3' extremities of transcripts, a much higher detection rate is possible.
Early studies using paraffin embedded tissue have delivered significant results. A collaboration with Prof PG Johnston at Queens University, Belfast used the Colorectal Cancer DSA™ research tool with paraffin embedded tissue to generate a genetic signature of relapse in Stage II Colorectal Cancer.
Dr Sridhar Ramaswamy at Mass General Hospital Cancer Centre is leading a team using Colorectal Cancer DSA™ technology in a major study analysing colorectal polyp tissue samples.
Our research will use the Colorectal Cancer DSA™ microarray to examine the transcriptome of colorectal polyps at a greater level of specificity and to generate information that will help us draw meaningful conclusions from our data.
Eventually we hope to develop a gene expression signature that will inform both surveillance and preventative protocols for colorectal cancer ” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, MD, [Tucker Gosnell Investigator & Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Centre and a Principal Investigator on the study].
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