Sample immortalization

As genetic analysis has become more widely used in both research and the clinic, scarcity of sample DNA has become such a big problem that it has been given a name: DNA constraint. Qiagen N.V. plans to address the issue with multiple displacement amplification (MDA) technology, a whole genome amplification (WGA) technology it recently acquired from Molecular Staging Inc., along with other technologies and IP (see BioCentury, Oct. 4).

"If you have insufficient quantities of DNA, you can't just use PCR to amplify it," said Helge Lubenow, general manager/integration manager and director of R&D nucleic acid purification at Qiagen (FSE:QIA; QGENF, Venlo, the Netherlands). "PCR needs a specific primer and results in short fragments, so it's best suited for the amplification of specific, known DNA fragments of up to a few thousand bases in length."...