Once considered a limitation, small cell samples have now led to
new technology advances that are providing researchers with
faster and more accurate molecular information. These advances
include separation methods to obtain pure cell populations,
novel gene expression techniques, and accurate quantitation of
material during probe development. Using these technologies
together, researchers are now able to obtain important
information even from a single cell. Overall, this is reducing
costs, improving data quality, and making R&D labs more
quantitative. Microgenomics is the new catch phrase for the
precise molecular analysis of very small populations of cells
that have been excised, or microdissected from biopsies.
Realizing that there was no technology to allow such analysis of
solid tumor biopsies, Thomas M. Baer, Ph.D., founder and
chairman of Arcturus Biosciences (www. arctur.com), developed
the first Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) platform with
several colleagues at the National Institutes of Health