Our relationship with Agilent also includes the manufactureby Agilent of 'OEM' arrays designed by OGT that we will then sell to our customers."
OGT expects collaborative agreements to become a moreimportant part of its business in the future. "OGT will focus on what it doesbest," CEO Mike Evans emphasizes, "array design and supply for our customersand development of novel array formats. As examples, our current developmentprojects include multi-sample arrays for cost-effective biomarker validationand clinical diagnostics, and analysis of gene expression at the single celllevel."
DNA microarrays can be used for many purposes, including comparisonsof gene expression between different individuals – for example, a cancer sampleand a control sample – that can lead to the identification of disease targetsin pharmaceutical discovery programs. "Array-based comparative genome hybridization (CGH)can provide much more fine detail about genetic lesions than other methods suchas karyotyping," Dr. Evans observes. "Other approaches using single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs) or copy number variants (CNVs) as genetic markers to trackthe inheritance of disease-causing genes through populations are increasinglybeing used in drug target discovery as well as in profiling clinical trialspopulations in the drug development phase."
