Resolving Translational Oncology Research Challenges with NanoString Direct Digital Gene Expression Analysis

Abstract
Successful Translational Research and Biomarker development today much depends on the availability of technologies that ensure accurate and precise multiplexed detection and quantitation of target biomolecules. Clinical necessities, on the other side, dictate that such measurements can be done effectively on small sample input amounts, on material of poor starting quality, and analytes obtained in a minimally invasive way. Because of this, classical methods often encounter problems to measure RNA or Protein expression levels robustly and reproducibly at high multiplexing levels.
The NanoString digital gene expression technology overcomes these hurdles by offering a fast workflow that is just based on hybridization and does not require any enzymatic modification of analytes or library preparation. The talk will present achievements of the NanoString approach in the context of biomarker discovery and pathway analysis within various areas of cancer research. It will also show how the technology can be employed to resolve expression differences in tissue sections in the spatial dimension