Rubicon Genomics has announced that its Picoplex linear whole genome amplification (WGA) technology was proven to be effective in an independent clinical study of single human cells.
The study was organised by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).
The ESHRE said it was able to show that a new approach incorporating Picoplex could more accurately detect and characterise chromosomal abnormalities in human eggs.
The method of pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) enables non-invasive testing of human eggs before fertilisation by combining Rubicon's highly linear and reproducible Picoplex WGA kits with Bluegnome's sensitive 24sure microarrays.
The more rapid, comprehensive and accurate test protocol is designed to improve the success rate of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
In the study, clinical centres in Italy and Germany determined that abnormalities in human eggs could be accurately detected 90 per cent of the time using the Rubicon and Bluegnome technologies.
Eggs were harvested from women undergoing IVF and small fragments of maternal DNA (called polar bodies) that are naturally discarded during development of the egg were analysed for genetic abnormalities.
More than 226 eggs from 41 women were analysed to identify the 37 eggs that had the correct number of chromosomes.
Implantation of the fertilised normal eggs resulted in eight clinical pregnancies.
While these results are considered encouraging, a larger, prospective clinical trial must be conducted to determine whether the new PGS method results in statistically significant improvements in pregnancy rate.
Picoplex is a method of extracting and amplifying total DNA from single cells and other precious samples - producing microgram amounts of DNA for PCR, array and sequencing analysis in less than three hours.
Picoplex delivers high linearity and reproducibility, as well as low background and allele dropout rates, according to Rubicon.
Rubicon manufactures Picoplex for inclusion in the Bluegnome 24sure system for the IVF market.
The company also sells the kits directly for research and development studies in cancer, stem cell and microbiology applications.
