SAN DIEGO, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq: IVGN - news) today announced the launch of TOPO® Tools, a powerful new technology platform that simplifies and accelerates molecular biology research.
``We believe TOPO Tools will accelerate scientific research by making it possible to conduct experiments much faster,'' said Lyle Turner, Invitrogen's Chairman and CEO. ``Scientists can now more quickly address the numerous drug development opportunities created by the sequencing of the human genome. In addition to being a powerful new scientific tool for proteomic research and drug development, TOPO Tools has the potential to become one of Invitrogen's most important product lines.''
Conventional proteomic studies begin with the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which makes multiple copies of a gene of interest. The copied gene is inserted into a DNA ``vector'' containing elements that regulate protein expression. This DNA construct is inserted into bacteria, where it multiplies as the bacteria replicate, a process known as cloning. The bacteria form colonies, which are analyzed to find one that contains the gene of interest. Bacteria from this colony are processed to remove and purify the DNA construct, which is then inserted into human or other mammalian cells to study the protein it produces. This process of cloning and purifying DNA takes 3 to 4 days before protein studies can begin.
With TOPO Tools, genes can be modified with regulatory elements and inserted into cells for protein expression without any bacterial steps. After using PCR, the copied gene can be linked to gene expression promoters, identification tags, or other modifying elements with only a 10-minute TOPO Tools joining reaction. After copying this gene construct with a second round of PCR, it can be directly inserted into human or other cells for protein studies. Using TOPO Tools, a scientist can accomplish in less than 1 day what previously took 3 to 4 days.
Commenting on TOPO Tools' fit with Invitrogen's product line, Mr. Turner stated, ``TOPO Tools is a revolutionary technology that augments our other cloning and expression products. After protein studies facilitated by TOPO Tools, for example, scientists will likely want to preserve those genes by cloning them with our TOPO Cloning products. For further protein studies, the next step may be to transfer those genes into our broad variety of expression vectors using our Gateway(TM) Cloning system. As such, TOPO Tools significantly increases the power and flexibility of Invitrogen's molecular biology 'operating system' for gene cloning and expression.''
Due to the speed with which gene and protein research can be accomplished with TOPO Tools, it is well suited to high-throughput studies. However, TOPO Tools is also useful to the researcher performing in-depth studies of gene function that are usually performed with fewer gene or protein candidates.
Invitrogen has been an industry leader in gene cloning and expression technology for over 10 years. In 1990, the company introduced TA® Cloning, saving scientists about a day's time by avoiding the preparation of a bacterial vector and gene. TA Cloning also improved the reliability of the experimental result from roughly 50% to approximately 80%. Invitrogen's 1997 launch of TOPO TA Cloning reduced the time required to combine a gene and a vector from 16 hours to 5 minutes, and improved reliability to 95%. This high reliability virtually eliminated the additional day needed for bacterial screening. With TOPO Tools, the entire several-day process for cloning, bacterial transformation, bacterial cultivation, and bacterial screening is eliminated... |
