SwitchGear Genomics assay-ready 3’UTR constructs establish validity in studies that identify critical functions of microRNAs
Complete panel of 3’UTR reporter assays empowers researchers to quickly and quantitatively measure miRNA impact
MENLO PARK, Calif. – June 5, 2009 – SwitchGear Genomics Inc., a leading provider of products for studying the regulatory elements in the human genome, today announced the application of its UTR Reporter Collection™ product line in uncovering critical miRNA functions in several recent research studies.
A joint team from SwitchGear Genomics and Thermo Fisher Scientific recently published the results of a study that demonstrate key miRNA activity in mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. The study also illustrated the benefits of employing a functional profiling strategy for comprehending complex miRNA pathways.
The findings are published in the article “Functional Profiling Reveals Critical Role for miRNA in Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells” at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005605.
“Current available methods focus on measuring only the levels of miRNAs within a cell type but do not identify the actual roles or targets of these miRNAs,” stated Devin Leake, Director of Research and Development for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s genomics business, which includes the Thermo Scientific Dharmacon line of microRNA products. “We conducted functional analysis of miRNAs and revealed those miRNAs that act as regulators in early hMSC differentiation.”
The team used the SwitchGear Genomics transfection-ready and sequence-verified reporter constructs to quantitatively measure the effects of miRNA mimics of interest on endogenous 3’UTRs.
“Our genome-wide collection of assay-ready 3’UTR constructs enable researchers to quickly measure miRNA function,” said Nathan Trinklein, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of SwitchGear Genomics, “Researchers can focus on quantifying miRNA activity on transcript regulation and translational efficiency to gain insight into the actual functions of these miRNAs without having to spend time on cloning.”
In another recent article in Cancer Research, “Coordinated regulation of cell cycle transcripts by p53-inducible microRNAs, miR-192 and miR-215,” researchers describe the function of key regulatory cell cycle miRNAs. The SwitchGear reporter constructs provided the key insight that these miRNAs function as tumor suppressors and that multiple miRNA families operate in the p53 network.
Researchers at SwitchGear Genomics further conducted a study on the role of miR-122, an important regulator of cholesterol and fatty-acid metabolism in liver that has been suggested as a therapeutic target for metabolic disease. The study revealed the target UTRs that specifically responded to miR-122 in addition to the genes that it translationally repressed. The complete findings are available at http://switchgeargenomics.com/products/utr-reporter-collection/.
About SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.:
SwitchGear Genomics Inc. is a leading provider of products for studying the regulatory elements in the human genome. The company offers transfection-ready, genome-wide collections of promoter and UTR reporter constructs, empowering researchers to quantitatively measure transcriptional regulation and translational efficiency. SwitchGear was founded in March 2005 by Dr. Richard Myers, Dr. Nathan Trinklein and Dr. Shelley Force Aldred from Stanford University. For more information about SwitchGear, please visit the company’s website at switchgeargenomics.com
Contact:
SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.
Brian McKelligon, 650-323-6570
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
brianm@switchgeargenomics.com
SwitchGear Genomics Launches Industry’s First Cost-Effective Research Tool for Screening Entire Nuclear Receptor and Hypoxia Pathways
High-throughput human promoter assays enable researchers to measure transcriptional regulation across every gene in a pathway
MENLO PARK, Calif. – December 11, 2008 – SwitchGear Genomics Inc., a leading provider of products for studying the regulatory elements in the human genome, today announced the availability of the industry’s first cost-effective high-throughput research tool for screening the transcriptional activation in the nuclear receptor and hypoxia gene pathways. The Nuclear Receptor Pathway Set™ and Hypoxia Pathway Set™ enable researchers to independently measure the impact of a stimulus on the transcriptional activation of each gene in a regulatory network.
The new SwitchGear pathway sets measure the activity of both the known and novel promoters related to nuclear receptor and hypoxia pathways. The Nuclear Receptor Pathway Set contains assay-ready luciferase reporter constructs for more than 1,000 nuclear receptor promoters and their targets. Subsets include promoter targets for PPARs, estrogen, androgen and glucocorticoid receptors. The Hypoxia Pathway Set has nearly 200 reporter constructs and provides a wide-ranging list of transcriptional promoters related to hypoxia biology, as well as promoters of genes associated with inflammation, respiration, vascular biology and novel promoters containing the hypoxia response element (HRE).
"By providing an assay-ready resource, SwitchGear enables our customers to focus not on making but using promoter reporter constructs for the comprehensive investigation of gene regulatory networks across many different experimental conditions," said Shelley Force Aldred, Ph.D., co-founder and president of SwitchGear Genomics. "The Nuclear Receptor Pathway Set and Hypoxia Pathway Set are delivered as purified transfection-ready plasmid DNAs. Customers now have the option of receiving complete sets, creating a customized subset based on our gene lists or selecting individual constructs."
For more information on SwitchGear’s Nuclear Receptor Pathway Set and Hypoxia Pathway Set or to take advantage of the company’s current year-end promotion, please visit switchgeargenomics.com.
About SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.:
SwitchGear Genomics Inc. is a leading provider of products for studying the regulatory elements in the human genome. The company has developed a comprehensive approach to generate new insights into gene regulatory networks and allow researchers to efficiently screen entire pathways in living cells. SwitchGear was founded in March 2005 by Dr. Richard Myers, Dr. Nathan Trinklein and Dr. Shelley Force Aldred from Stanford University. For more information about SwitchGear, please visit the company’s website at switchgeargenomics.com.
Contact:
Brian McKelligon
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.
Phone: 650-323-6570
Email: brianm@switchgeargenomics.com
SOURCE: SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.
First Ready-To-Screen Libraries Available for High-throughput Regulatory Pathway Research
SwitchGear functional macroarray incorporates Promega luciferase technology
Madison, WI USA (July 24, 2007) Researchers can efficiently screen entire genetic pathways in living cells with new tools developed by SwitchGear Genomics. The product offering, which includes the first ready-to-screen libraries for high-throughput regulatory pathway research, consists of thousands of human promoters, UTRs and other regulatory elements encompassing many different disease-related pathways.
“Our philosophy at SwitchGear Genomics is that conclusions can be made with much higher confidence by integrating the data from multiple independent genome-scale experiments,” explains Shelley Force Aldred, President of SwitchGear Genomics. “These integrated data sets will explain a transcriptional regulatory network in much greater detail than if the data sets were analyzed independently of one another.”
The new tools contain Promega luciferase reporter technology. Specifically, this new offering leverages all the strengths of luciferase reporters in ease and sensitivity to provide insights into cellular signaling events following xenobiotic treatment.
“The Promega luciferase reporters, specifically the luc2P construct, offer the best characteristics in a bioluminescent reporter assay. It really delivers the strongest sensitivity, dynamic range, turnover rate and compatibility with high-throughput platforms,” says Force Aldred.
All of the regulatory elements in the libraries are cloned in a vector containing the luc2P gene, a destabilized luciferase that contains a Pro-Glu-Ser-Thr (PEST) peptide sequence for faster response time and decreased time to maximum induction.
Nathan Trinklein, PhD, CEO of SwitchGear Genomics will present the new technology at:
Drug Discovery & Development of Innovative Therapeutics World Congress
Boston, MA
Exhibit Conference Hall
August 8, 2007.
About SwitchGear Genomics
SwitchGear Genomics is based in Menlo Park, California, and was founded by scientists from Stanford University in 2005. The goal of SwitchGear Genomics is to provide custom research services and experimental tools to aid researchers in large-scale studies of transcriptional regulation. For more information about SwitchGear Genomics, visit switchgeargenomics.com.
About Promega
Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s 1,450 products enable scientists worldwide to advance their knowledge in genomics, proteomics, cellular analysis, molecular diagnostics and human identification. For more information about Promega, visit www.promega.com.
Contact:
SwitchGear Genomics
Rick Eyraud
Vice President
(650) 323-6763
info@switchgeargenomics.com
Promega
Penny Patterson
Corporate Communications
(608) 274-4330
penny.patterson@promega.com
New Technology to Study the Mechanism of Cancer
Switchgear Genomics unveils new experimental technology to characterize the biological networks of cancer cells.
Menlo Park, CA, April 12, 2007 –(PR.com)– SwitchGear Genomics is a biotech company based on technology developed at Stanford University that focuses on the molecular switches in the human genome that turn genes on and off. The company has just released the world’s first tool to rapidly and accurately interrogate the function of over 3,000 DNA switches that regulate cancer biology. This oncology tool enables researchers to study the activity of regulatory switches in living cancer cells. Richard Myers, Chairman of Genetics Department at Stanford University says, “SwitchGear’s novel platform directly measures the mechanisms that regulate cancer genetics. It is very exciting technology, and our lab plans to use it to provide a deeper understanding of the biology of cancer. We hope that this work will ultimately lead to new and better cancer therapeutics.”
Cancer is a genetic disease characterized by the erroneous processing of information contained in our genome. Billions of dollars have been spent in an effort to identify the genes involved in cancer. However, protein-coding genes make up a small fraction of the total genome and provide a limited view into the causes of cancer. According to Nathan Trinklein, CEO and co-founder of SwitchGear Genomics, “The DNA switches identified by SwitchGear are critical to understanding how information in the genome is processed. Cancer is a very complex disease, but one thing all cancers have in common is the inability of cells to recognize the signals to stop dividing. Many of these growth signals are contained in the DNA switches identified by SwitchGear, and researchers will now be able to analyze their function on a high-throughput scale. Our initial beta customers in pharmaceutical and academic research groups have rapidly generated very interesting data sets.”
About SwitchGear Genomics:
SwitchGear Genomics was founded by Dr. Richard Myers, Dr. Nathan Trinklein, and Dr. Shelley Force Aldred of Stanford University. SwitchGear Genomics provides novel technology to aid researchers in large-scale studies of gene regulation. The new tools and services offered by SwitchGear Genomics enables researches to gather novel data, greatly enrich existing genomic datasets, and focus on the comprehensive characterization of genetic pathways. As leaders in the fields of DNA switch identification and functional characterization, SwitchGear is in a unique position to provide the research community with an entirely new way to study the function of the human genome and ultimately develop new classes of therapeutics.
Contact:
Nathan Trinklein, Ph.D.
Co-founder, CEO
SwitchGear Genomics
Phone: 650-323-6763
Email: nathant@switchgeargenomics.com
switchgeargenomics.com