Singapore, Jun 30, 2009: Invitrogen has announced the commercial availability of a state-of-the-art, automated, research-use microarray system designed to simplify immunogenetic testing, including human leukocyte antigen (HLA) research. The new Prodigy system is said to be an advanced DNA and protein analysis tool that simplifies and accelerates histocompatibility research, vaccine and drug development, and disease association studies.

The Prodigy system is a high-throughput sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe system that streamlines sample workflow for hybridizing, detecting and analyzing HLA markers in large-volume variation analysis and genotyping research studies. HLA markers are cell-surface proteins that play a key regulation role in the human immune system, functioning as an alert mechanism when the body has been invaded by foreign proteins or molecules, such as bacteria, parasites and viruses. The Prodigy system represents a significant advancement in technologies for this type of research, providing scientists with a simplified workflow for cleaner, consistent and reproducible results, while reducing hands-on interaction with the system, resulting in decreased variability, errors and the need for repeat testing.

The Prodigy system is also said to feature several technological advancements over other systems in the market. It has 5-times the density capacity of current bead-based assays and is enabled by push-button, walk-away automation, enabling researchers to spend valuable time reviewing data or preparing more samples. Prodigy is inherently scalable to include multiplexing capability for more than 500 analytes, while providing high resolution and unmatched efficiency and reliability.

Mr Jim Janicki, VP & General Manager of Life Technologies’ Transplantation Diagnostics Business said “The development of the Prodigy microarray system is the latest development in Invitrogen’s strategy to make its best-in-class genomic and proteomic technologies available within the HLA research field. This powerful system provides an end-to-end solution that will help researchers advance their immunogenetic studies.”