Plexpress, developer of the innovative TRAC platform for high-throughput gene expression analysis, has announced a new collaboration with the contract research organisation (CRO), Admescope, which will now include TRAC as part of its services for investigating in vitro drug interactions and pre-clinical ADME-Tox responses. Admescope customers can now take advantage of the benefits offered by Plexpress' novel TRAC (Transcript Analysis with the aid of Affinity Capture) technology. These include higher sample throughput, increased assay speed and reduced technical variation when compared to similar gene expression analyses undertaken using qPCR or microarrays. In the first instance, Admescope will offer Plexpress' well-validated multiplex assays targeting the Cytochrome P450 (CYP) family, which can be used as an insightful indicator of potential drug toxicity and efficacy. The new service is particularly well suited to meeting recent draft recommendations from the FDA, which suggest that CYP mRNA analysis might be more informative for drug metabolism studies than measuring CYP activity (1).

For more information about how TRAC could boost the efficiency of your drug discovery pipeline, please visit www.plexpress.com. For more information about the new Admescope services utilising TRAC, please email info@admescope.com or view the detailed TRAC announcement on the Admescope website.
  

Reference:

1. FDA Guidance for Industry Report (Feb 2012): Drug Interaction Studies Study Design, Data Analysis, Implications for Dosing, and Labeling Recommendations

About Plexpress

Plexpress was established as a spinoff from the Finnish Technology Research Center VTT in 2007. Including R&D at VTT, the company's TRAC technology has been developed continuously for nearly 10 years and it has been documented in over 15 publications. The technology was originally developed for demanding bioprocess applications, which required a very robust solution for gene expression analysis. Since starting operations in 2008, the company has carried out over 50 projects using the TRAC technology in the fields of pharmaceutical development and academic research.