At DNA Genotek, we recently learned the details of study being conducted by Generation Scotland called The Scottish Family Health Study. We wanted to share some of this information with you here on The Genetic Link.
Study overview
Generation Scotland is creating an ethically sound, family and population-based resource to identify the genetic basis of common complex diseases. The Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study is a large-scale, long-term project, which aims to find out more about common illnesses, such as heart disease and stroke. It is known that heredity plays a role in these diseases. By collecting medical and genetic information from families, and by following their health over the coming years, Generation Scotland hopes to find out which lifestyle and inherited factors are connected with higher or lower risk of these illnesses.
Main challenges
The Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study aims to collect phenotype information and blood for biochemical analysis and DNA isolation from 25,000 people living in Scotland. As the name suggests, the Scottish Family Health Study is based on families, so they need at least one sibling and preferably other family members (aged 18 or over) as well. The inclusion of as many family members as possible, especially from large families, will increase the power of the study. However, for a variety of reasons, not all participants can make a clinic appointment. Collecting DNA samples from relatives who live in geographically dispersed locations may not be possible within a clinic setting. Others may be inconvenienced by a visit to the clinic. To overcome this barrier to compliance and to maximize the number of study participants, Oragene•DNA kits are mailed to such participants, with instructions for self-collection.
To read the full case study on this study and how Oragene•DNA helped overcome their recruitment challenge, please click here.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about this study. Be sure to subscribe to The Genetic Link so you don't miss any of our articles.
We were recently introduced to an organization at the heart of a movement focused on the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It’s a movement that is designed to end these diseases faster.
The organization is called the Global Business Coalition (GBC) on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and DNA Genotek has joined the GBC in its fight to end these diseases. DNA Genotek chose to join the GBC because there is a natural fit between their mandate and our technologies. GBC brings together businesses across various sectors to help fight global epidemics. Our products, designed to enable safe, easy and reliable collection of DNA and RNA samples, are the building blocks to genetic research and analysis of these diseases. The Oragene family of products is unique in that they facilitate research in low-resource settings where these diseases are most prevalent.
John Tedstrom, GBC’s president and CEO commented on DNA Genotek’s involvement: “DNA Genotek, with its expertise as a leader in enabling genetic research, will be a powerful asset to the Coalition. It is by connecting the technical expertise of companies like DNA Genotek with our partners in government, civil society and the multilateral community that we’ll be able to defeat these diseases faster.”
Ian Curry, president and CEO of DNA Genotek commented: “Understanding the genetic basis of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria is critical to discovering new prevention and treatment options. DNA Genotek’s Oragene•DNA family of products has facilitated the genetic study of many diseases. It is our hope that our work with the GBC will enable research that may one day lead to the identification of the genes involved in these diseases or genes which cause resistance to treatment so that effective measures can be taken.”
Our involvement in the GBC allows us to continue to pursue our goal of enabling worldwide health improvements. We are all looking forward to working with the GBC.
What do you think of initiatives like this? Leave a comment and tell us your thoughts.
The Genetic Link welcomes guest blog authors. This guest submission is from Megan P. Hitchins, PhD. Medical Epigenetics Laboratory, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. We thank Dr. Hitchins for her submission and welcome her as a guest author. I hope you enjoy this article.
A host of familial cancer syndromes have been described in which several members of the same family develop cancer at a young age due to an inherited genetic susceptibility. It has been well established that germline mutations in the DNA sequence of genes that are protective against cancer, including tumour suppressor and DNA repair genes, are the culprit in most familial cases of cancer. Because they are inherited, these germline mutations are present in every cell of the body from conception into adulthood, knocking out one of the two copies of the protective gene. They confer a high risk of cancer development at a young age, although the cancer itself arises when the remaining normally-functioning copy of the gene is knocked out in susceptible tissues due to contributing environmental conditions, taking with it the last remnants of protection it once afforded against cancer. However, for a number of individuals with young-onset cancer, as well as entire families, the inherited defect remains unidentified, which complicates genetic counselling and clinical management of family members. Lynch syndrome is the most common of all family cancer syndromes, in which patients develop a range of cancers, the most frequent of which are colorectal and uterine cancers. Lynch syndrome is usually caused by germline mutations within one of the four genes that encode the mismatch repair system, most commonly MLH1 or MSH2. Loss of protection from the mismatch repair system results in the accumulation of mutations during cell division, and ultimately, cancer ensues. However, in about a third of Lynch syndrome patients, standard genetic screening fails to identify any pathogenic sequence change within the mismatch repair genes that might be responsible for their disease.
The focus of the Medical Epigenetics Laboratory at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre in Sydney, Australia, led by Megan Hitchins PhD, is to determine the role of a new type of defect, termed a "constitutional epimutation" in predisposing to young-onset cancer syndromes. The first case of a "constitutional epimutation" was reported for the MLH1 gene in a patient with Lynch syndrome in 2002.1 This represents a new epigenetic mechanism of cancer susceptibility, in which the gene's promoter (the equivalent of its engine) is clogged with the chemical methylation, causing the affected copy to be switched off, even though its DNA code is entirely normal. Thus, "epimutation" refers to the nature of the defect, which occurs over and above the context of DNA sequence, whilst "constitutional" denotes the intrinsic presence of this epigenetic defect in normal tissues. Cancer similarly develops after the active copy of the gene is lost in the vulnerable tissues, giving rise to the same clinical profile as carriers of conventional sequence mutations of MLH1. However, one of the key differences between a constitutional epimutation and a sequence mutation is that the gene methylation can be unstable and sometimes show a "mosaic" pattern, that is, it may be present in a patchwork of some cell or tissue-types, whilst absent in others. The level of methylation in the body may even vary during the course of the carrier's life-time. This facet of epimutations adds to the challenge of identifying those who carry them, since their identifying factor - the presence of methylation - may not necessarily be detectable in DNA extracted from a single source, typically peripheral blood. A further complicating factor is that unlike germline mutations that demonstrate classic Mendelian patterns of inheritance, transmission of epimutations from one generation to the next is unpredictable. This non-Mendelian inheritance is attributable to the fact that methylation is stripped away during the reproductive life-cycle, and so epimutations tend to be reversed between generations and may, or may not, be re-imposed after fertilization in the developing fetus. Indeed, it is likely that the degree of methylation mosaicism witnessed in carriers reflects the stage of embryogenesis during which the methylation was established in them. Therefore, when it comes to screening for epimutations, for instance in the family members of a cancer patient found to carry one, it is prudent to test the DNA extracted from more than one tissue-type. Otherwise, it begs the question of whether a negative test means those relatives are safe from cancer as non-carriers, or whether it is just didn't show up in the tissue tested due to the mosaic nature of methylation. To minimise the possibility of failing to detect an epimutation, we have adopted the approach of testing DNA extracted from different tissue sources, namely blood, hair bulbs, buccal swabs, and thanks to the Oragene kits, saliva. In fact, since saliva is originally derived from the same embryonic cell lineage as the colon, it may even provide a more accurate representation of the epigenetic changes that have occurred in the colon than blood. In our recent article in the International Journal of Cancer,2 we show for the first time that in one case, Patient YT, who developed colon cancer at the age of just 18 years due to a constitutional MLH1 epimutation, that methylation was present in his saliva, as per other normal cells (Figure 1a). Thus his saliva showed a consistent pattern with other sources of tissue, indicating a severe soma-wide epimutation (Figure b). Furthermore, using the saliva RNA extraction kit, we were also able to show that the methylated copy of the gene was completely switched off (Figure 1c). Interestingly, screening of his parents showed that neither of them had any detectable methylation, despite screening multiple tissues including their saliva, and so we could say with confidence that the epimutation had arisen spontaneously in their cancer-affected son, but that they themselves were not at an elevated risk of developing cancer from the same type of defect.
Figure 1. Constitutional MLH1 epimutation in "Patient YT"
A: Schematic overview comparing a constitutional epimutation of MLH1, as found in Patient YT, with the normal gene of a healthy individual. Rectangles denote the two copies of the gene and its mRNA product. Methylation of the promoter is depicted by black lollipops. Gene activity is denoted by a waved arrow. The common c.655A>G SNP within the protein-code portion of the MLH1 gene is shown, which enables the two copies of the gene to be distinguished from one another, allowing the activity of the two alleles to be traced in the mRNA. B: Allelic patterns of MLH1 methylation showed methylation was widespread in normal somatic tissues, including saliva collected using the Oragene kit. The "beads of string" represent individual strands of DNA from the MLH1 promoter with dots showing positions of methylation present (black) or absent (white) at CG sites within the DNA sequence, at which methylation is capable of binding. C: Quantification by pyrosequencing of the two copies of the MLH1 gene in the genomic DNA and mRNA samples derived from saliva collected using the Oragene kits. The yellow-shaded region shows the peaks representing each allele at the SNP site. Two peaks showing equal levels of the ‘A' and ‘G' alleles in his saliva DNA show the patient is heterozygous for the benign c.655A>G SNP, allowing the two copies of to be differentiated. However, in his saliva mRNA, only the ‘G' allele was detected, indicating that the ‘A' allele has been switched off by the promoter methylation further upstream.
Our laboratory now routinely collects saliva using the Oragene kits from patients with colon cancer who we suspect may have been caused by intrinsic epigenetic changes, since we believe methylation may be elevated and hence more easily detected in this source of DNA than in blood. Furthermore, we are finding that our rate of compliance in providing samples for diagnostic or research purposes has increased. Firstly, those who are elderly, sick or have an aversion to needles are more willing to provide a sample of saliva than blood for DNA or RNA extraction. Secondly, in our research endeavouring to unravel the inheritance pattern of constitutional MLH1 epimutations, we rely on the voluntary contribution of specimens from the asymptomatic relatives of cancer patients who carry this defect. Relatives are happier to provide a specimen of saliva at their own convenience and in the comfort of their own home, than in visiting their clinician or pathology laboratory to provide a blood sample. Following contact by phone with the genetic counsellor or research nurse, they simply place their saliva sample in the stamped addressed envelope we provide and return it to the laboratory by post, along with their signed consent form approving the inclusion of their sample in our research study. To this end, the Oragene saliva kits have greatly facilitated our research from a logistical perspective, whilst also providing a new dimension for testing different tissue-types for epigenetic changes that may vary from one tissue source to another.
References.
- 1. Gazzoli, I., Loda, M., Garber, J., Syngal, S. & Kolodner, R.D. A hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma case associated with hypermethylation of the MLH1 gene in normal tissue and loss of heterozygosity of the unmethylated allele in the resulting microsatellite instability-high tumor. Cancer Res 62, 3925-8 (2002).
- 2. Goel A, Nguyen T-P, Hon-Chiu E Leung H-CE, Nagasaka T, Rhees J, Hotchkiss E, Arnold M, Banerji P, Koi M, Kwok C-T, Packham D, Lipton L, Boland CR, Ward RL, Hitchins MP. De novo constitutional MLH1 epimutations confer early-onset colorectal cancer in two new sporadic Lynch syndrome cases, with derivation of the epimutation on the paternal allele in one. International Journal of Cancer 2010, in press.
Oragene•DNA is well known for a number of characteristics - ease of use, non-invasive collection, high quality and quantity DNA and, of course, long term storage at ambient temperature. It's often difficult for researchers and clinicians to believe that storage at ambient temperature is possible for DNA samples. We are frequently asked about this specification of our product. However, studies using Oragene•DNA prove that customers can rely on the ability to store Oragene•DNA/saliva samples at ambient temperatures when collecting samples in remote locations, via the mail, or for event-based recruitment. The figure to the right shows an agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA extracted from Oragene•DNA/saliva samples stored at room temperature for 5 years.
The preservation and storage of DNA samples is an important consideration for molecular epidemiology, clinical trials, and population studies. To ensure your success, we have created the following best practices for the long term storage of unpurified saliva samples collected with the Oragene•DNA Self-Collection Kit. We will also highlight the rationale for these recommendations.
Storage at room temperature
DNA from saliva is stable in the Oragene•DNA collection tube for up to 5 years. This stability is achieved as a result of the kit's proprietary reagents that inactivate enzymes in saliva and minimize chemical hydrolysis of DNA. These reagents also prevent the growth of bacteria in the sample.
Frozen storage
Oragene•DNA/saliva samples may also be stored at temperatures below -20°C. Samples may undergo at least three freeze-thaw cycles with no evidence of DNA degradation. Although the Oragene•DNA collection tube is designed to ensure a tight seal, frozen storage may further reduce evaporation of the liquid medium during long term storage.
Aliquots in microcentrifuge tubes
The Oragene•DNA collection tube is designed for user friendly saliva collection from donors. However, in the lab, storage in more compact tubes may be preferable. To reduce storage space, an Oragene•DNA/saliva sample which has been heated at 50°C for a minimum of 1 hour may be split into 4 aliquots of 1 mL each and stored in 1.5 mL screw-top microcentrifuge tubes. It is advisable to use tubes with O-rings to ensure a tight seal and minimize long term loss from evaporation.
We hope these best practices will help you optimize the long term storage of all your unpurified Oragene•DNA samples. If you like this article, watch for an upcoming blog post on the best practices for long term storage of purified DNA from Oragene•DNA samples. If you want to be notified of our blog posts, be sure to subscribe to The Genetic Link.
Was this article useful? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.
Today, DNA Genotek announced our involvement in a significant pilot project with the UK's largest bone marrow registry, the Anthony Nolan Trust. The details of this exciting project follow:
DNA Genotek, a leading provider of products for biological sample collection, stabilization and preparation, today announced that The Anthony Nolan Trust, the UK's largest bone marrow donor registry, has selected Oragene•DNA for a pilot project aimed at increasing donor recruitment. Bone marrow donor registries, also known as HLA registries, use HLA DNA testing to match leukemia patients with prospective donors. The pilot project will determine if donor recruitment can be increased significantly with the use of non-invasive, saliva-based DNA collection compared to blood collection.
The Anthony Nolan Trust has traditionally required all registry participants to have a blood sample collected either at their doctor's office or by phlebotomists at recruitment clinics. Under this pilot project, the potential donor provides a saliva sample without any assistance (for example, at home) and mails the sample back through the regular postal system, thereby facilitating and dramatically reducing the cost of the entire process. DNA samples collected with Oragene•DNA are easier, safer, and faster to collect than other methods and remain stable at ambient temperature for transport and storage prior to being analyzed at the lab.
There are currently over 400,000 people included in The Anthony Nolan Trust's registry, but many more participants are needed. 70% of patients needing a transplant cannot find a compatible match from within their families and rely on registries to find an unrelated donor for life-saving procedures. Through using Oragene•DNA, The Anthony Nolan Trust expects an increase in donor recruitment and therefore the likelihood of matches between those patients needing bone marrow transplants and potential donors held in their database.
Ailsa Ogilvie, director of operations at The Anthony Nolan Trust stated: "We have historically recruited new people to our register using blood samples, but our early laboratory results confirm that Oragene•DNA provides the high quality DNA that we need. We are optimistic that this pilot project will simplify the recruitment process and ultimately increase the number of people willing to join our register. Following the successful completion of this pilot phase, we hope to switch completely to using saliva samples to recruit new donors to our register via Oragene•DNA from late 2010."
"By streamlining the sample collection and transportation procedures, Oragene•DNA enables The Anthony Nolan Trust to focus on its primary goal of increasing donor recruitment", said Ian Curry, president and CEO, DNA Genotek, Inc. "Oragene•DNA provides a reliable, cost-effective, and scalable method that is ideal for bone marrow donor registries worldwide. Our product is easy to use, safe to transport through the mail and remains stable at ambient temperature for long periods of time. What we learn from this pilot project will help chart the future for The Anthony Nolan Trust and we are certainly proud to be part of this effort."
Note: The pilot project referenced in this press release is currently available in limited areas in the United Kingdom. It is not expected to be available nationally until the summer of 2010.
Learn more at the European Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility Conference (EFI) in Florence, Italy May 17th when Alasdair J. McWhinnie of the Anthony Nolan Trust will present a session titled: "Saliva specimens collected with Oragene are a reliable alternative to blood and buccal swabs for large scale DNA extraction and HLA typing of recruits for hematopoietic stem cell donor registries." Register here.
The Genetic Link welcomes guest blog authors. Our first guest submission is from Rachel Dvoskin, Ph.D., with the University of Florida. We thank Rachel for her submission and welcome her as a guest author. I hope you enjoy this article.
At the department of Anthropology and Genetics Institute at the University of Florida, we study genetic variation in modern human populations to answer diverse questions ranging from the route early humans took when they first migrated out of Africa to the underlying causes of racial differences in susceptibility to complex diseases. To explore these varied aspects of human evolutionary history, we spend a lot of time figuring out how to collect DNA from a large number of volunteers. With today's genetic technology, all that's necessary is to obtain a small blood or saliva sample from each of our participants -- a task relatively easy to do in concept but quite a bit more challenging in practice.
When doing this kind of research -- whether at home or abroad -- we come up against a bunch of potential hurdles. Language and cultural barriers can make it difficult to explain what we are doing and what we are hoping to gain from our participants. As a blond, female, American anthropologist who could hardly say hello in Arabic, Dr. Connie Mulligan never expected collecting DNA samples to be as easy as it was in the remote corners of the Middle Eastern country of Yemen. The Oragene•DNA saliva collection kits are non-invasive, simple to use, and even include illustrated instructions right on the package, making their use completely self-explanatory. We had no problem collecting saliva samples from hundreds of Yemeni participants, including many women garbed in the full abaya.
Furthermore, the lack of need for freezing or refrigeration allowed us to travel around the country without worrying about storage conditions. The disks are small and self-contained, and we did not have to carry any separate buffers or processing equipment. The saliva collectors made it possible to obtain large volumes of high-quality DNA. This DNA is used to answer questions about the movement of early humans out of Arabia. We will soon be able to thank our Yemeni study participants by telling them something new about their country's role in the peopling of the world.
We are now gearing up to do a study here in our own backyard in Florida. In collaboration with cultural anthropologists, we are studying how genetic factors and the social environment interact to influence a person's susceptibility to hypertension. Because we are interested in racial disparities in health in the U.S., we chose to conduct our community-based study in Tallahassee, a city with a long history of racial tension and civil rights activism. Given the potential for misuse of genetic information and the rare but horrific cases of unethical medical experimentation on oppressed minorities, it is understandable that people would be fearful or reluctant to participate in a study of this kind. We expect, however, that the non-threatening nature of the Oragene•DNA saliva collection kits will put people at ease and increase participation.
We value highly this simple, non-invasive technique because unlike many studies in which researchers opportunistically collect samples from people who are already being treated in a hospital or clinic, we are instead approaching regular people in their homes -- trying to get a representative sample of all types of people within a community. We think that the more benign and user-friendly the collection techniques, the more useful they will be for our research and for future work with minority groups and previously unsampled populations. This includes people in regions where lab or storage facilities are scarce as well as populations that have been overlooked or underrepresented in medical and health research.
Did you like this guest authored article? Leave a comment and let us know.
DNA Day commemorates the successful completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the discovery of DNA's double helix by Watson and Crick in 1953. The Human Genome Project was a 13-year project coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The primary goal of the project was to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes of the human genome. As a result of the Human Genome Project, a Congressional resolution designated April 23 as the National DNA Day.
DNA Day is much more than a time to honor historical achievements - it's a day filled with opportunities for students, teachers and the public to learn how the exciting field of genome research touches all of our lives.
This year, for the first time, DNA Genotek is marking DNA Day celebrations with a new program with a focus on helping students in high schools, colleges and universities learn more about DNA collection and purification. The program, titled DNA Genotek's Science Education Program, will offer Oragene•DNA self collection kits at no charge to classrooms in accredited high schools, colleges and universities for teaching purposes.
Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for educators to use Oragene•DNA kits as a teaching platform in the classroom. The saliva-based collection method allows students to collect DNA and experiment with purification methods in the classroom, facilitating a greater understanding of DNA and its importance in health and disease. DNA Day celebrates the promise DNA holds in unlocking discovery that will impact global health and is the ideal time to introduce this program.
We're very excited about this program and its potential to have a positive impact on science education. Accredited high schools, colleges and universities can submit an online application form to receive these kits for teaching purposes.
If you want to learn more about DNA Day 2010, the best resource is the official DNA Day website at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). There you'll find news, resources and tools having to do with genetics.
If DNA Day inspires your children (or you) to learn more about the ins and outs of the genome, let us know. We'd love to hear how this special day had an impact on you.
Today, DNA Genotek announced that our Oragene•DNA self collection kit (OG-500), has been selected as a winner in the 2010 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) competition, the premier awards program for the medical technology community.
As an all-in-one system for the collection, stabilization, transportation and purification of DNA from saliva, our flagship Oragene•DNA product has been rapidly gaining acceptance as the preferred method for non-invasive DNA collection by research institutions and commercial organizations around the world. Oragene•DNA enables our customers' research and genetic analysis programs with an aim to advance health research and healthcare delivery.
Our status as a winner of the prestigious Medical Design Excellence Awards competition highlights our commitment to excellence in product design and ease of use. MDEA is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products. A comprehensive review of the entries was performed by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design, medicine and diagnostics.
I am proud to share this award with our product development partner, DW Product Development Inc. and with our dedicated employees. Their outstanding focus on quality for all aspects of our business is what makes awards like this possible.
Interested in trying this product? Click here for an evaluation kit.
Saliva is one of the most accessible of our body's bio-fluids making saliva sample collection easy and non-invasive. Saliva also harbours a wide spectrum of genetic data that can be used for genetic research and clinical diagnostic applications. It might surprise you to know that much confusion surrounds the source of genomic DNA in saliva. It certainly came as a surprise to me when I met with a number of customers on a recent trip across the continent.
In recent years, we've seen a marked increase in the desire to understand the genetic basis of disease as a means to improve patient diagnosis and treatment. While the range of research spans the spectrum of known diseases, all genetic research projects share one vital building block in that they require DNA as a starting point. Traditionally, DNA has been extracted from white blood cells extracted from whole blood. White blood cells are an excellent source of large amounts of high quality genomic DNA. However, because of the invasiveness and cost of obtaining, transporting and processing blood samples, researchers and clinicians have long searched for alternative methods. Over the past few years, saliva has become recognized as a very important and reliable alternative to blood samples for genetic research, clinical diagnostics, pharmacogenomics and more. What exactly is it that makes saliva such a good alternative to blood for genetic applications? It all comes down to the source of DNA in saliva.
Surprisingly, many people I spoke with assumed the source of DNA in saliva is strictly buccal epithelial cells, however, studies show that up to 74%(1) of the DNA in saliva comes from white blood cells. Yielding virtually the same amount of DNA per volume and the same DNA quality, saliva can be considered as good and as reliable a source of DNA for a wide variety of genetic applications. One thing to note however is that not all oral samples are equal.
Oral Sample Collection Methods
There are three methods for collecting oral DNA samples - dry, wet and non-invasive procedures.
Dry procedures require the donor to insert a cytobrush, buccal swabs or other collection device into the mouth where tissue is scraped from the gum and cheek surfaces. These methods collect primarily buccal cells that are lower quality and are potentially contaminated with bacteria from the teeth and other surfaces.
Wet procedures include swishing liquids in the mouth and spitting them into a collecting vessel. Mouthwash, which can contain a high percentage of alcohol content, is typically used for this procedure. The protocol, which can request the donor to swish for up to one minute, can burn and be uncomfortable for the donor. Mouthwash is also designed to remove bacteria from teeth and other mouth surfaces which results in a high amount of bacterial content being released into the sample.
Both the dry and wet methods described above do not prevent bacteria from growing in the sample and do not actively stabilize DNA. These methods also involve the insertion of an object or substance into the mouth. While it is arguably less invasive than venipuncture, it does not quite meet the definition of ‘non-invasive'.
Completely non-invasive collection using Oragene•DNA is a simple, painless procedure that requires the donor to spit into a collection device. After providing a sample and closing the device, a solution is released from the cap to mix with the saliva. This solution stabilizes the DNA for long-term storage at room temperature and prevents bacterial contamination. There is no requirement to insert an object or substance into the mouth - the user simply holds the tube and spits into it. In my opinion, that's the true definition of non-invasive DNA collection. As we like to say at DNA Genotek, "Just Spit, That's It!"
The high quality and high quantity of DNA collected with Oragene•DNA provides an excellent option for applications ranging from the largest molecular epidemiologic studies in remote locations, to bio-banking or HLA typing and even a single personalized medicine test.
Did anything in this article surprise you? Leave us a comment and let us know.
Interested in learning more about non-invasive DNA sample collection with Oragene•DNA? Register for our live webinar on April 21, 2010 at 11:00am ET.
References: (1) Thiede, C. et al. Buccal swabs but not mouthwash samples can be used to obtain pretransplant DNA fingerprints from recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplant. (2000). Bone Marrow Transplantation. 25(5): 575-577.)
This morning, Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL) announced that it has completed validation testing of DNA Genotek's Oragene•DNA saliva collection kits and will adopt Oragene•DNA for use with its molecular diagnostic services.
CRL is a CLIA-certified molecular diagnostics services provider based in Lenexa, Kansas offering a wide assortment of molecular diagnostic services including gene expression profiling, microarrays, CNV/SNP typing, pathogen detection, infectious disease testing, pharmacogenetic testing, sample banking, assays for personalized medicine and custom diagnostics. CRL also operates a global clinical trials division.
"Working with DNA Genotek and utilizing its products enhances CRL's menu of high quality molecular services through saliva-based DNA tests", said CRL Executive Director of Molecular Diagnostics, Dr. Heather Newkirk. "Offering services integrating the Oragene•DNA product allows us to provide our clients with a state of the art solution for extraction and genotyping DNA from saliva. We are impressed with the quality and quantity of DNA we obtain using Oragene•DNA."
"CRL joins a growing list of genomic service providers and technology vendors that have validated Oragene•DNA with their products and/or service offerings," said Ian Curry, president and CEO, DNA Genotek, Inc. "Adding CRL to our program gives our customers increased access to an approved service provider that can reliably process samples collected with our products. Our customers can benefit from CRL's offerings for saliva-based DNA extraction, analysis and testing."
Everyone at DNA Genotek welcomes CRL to the DNA Genotek Partner Program.