Radany: Affymetrix clearly dominates the high-density market segment and its products are used for screening. In fact, we view our product as a complement to the Affymetrix arrays and most of our cus­tomers have used the ArrayPlate in follow-up studies to validate or characterize their Affymetrix results. We differentiate our product in three ways. First, it is very quan­titative and can be used to simultaneously measure small changes in small samples on a focused set of targets very reproducibly. Second, we offer customized arrays focused on specific pathways or biomarkers. Third, its robust nature and ability to test lots of samples quickly and cost effectively using crude lysates and eliminating extraction make it an ideal method to follow up the initial Affymetrix results.

Radany: Simply put, our customers. They asked us for a menu of standard arrays for a variety of applications such as oncology, apoptosis, toxicology and inflammation to use as starting starting points in their ini­tial experiments. Once a researcher under­stands the basic processes in a specific area of study, they can then move to zero in on a specific set of genes using our ArrayPlate product based on the quantitative nuclease protection assay (qNPA).

 

Radany: We recognize this trend and certainly we are aware of it from our discussion with custom­ers. In fact we have shown that the the qNPA assay can be used for siRNA as well as RNAi applica­tions. We think that researchers can use the broad versatility of the qNPA as a platform technology to move across quickly and easily across a variety of applications.