Syngene - New Image Analysis Software offers Rapid, High Throughput MADGE Gel Analysis

2 January 2003 Cambridge, UK: Syngene, a world-leading manufacturer of image analysis solutions, today introduced its GeneTools MADGE system, a robot compatible software designed to make high throughput gel studies both quicker and easier to perform.

Microtitre Array Diagonal Gel Electrophoresis (MADGE) gels are run in a grid format based on a micro-titre plate and have the potential for up to 768 tracks within a single gel. Therefore, using GeneTools MADGE software to automate this type of analysis will save users many hours of repetitive manual gel comparisons.

With GeneTools MADGE, users can select the degree of rotation and electrophoresis direction, as well as the number of 96 well data sets using columns and rows. The easy-to-use grid allows manual realignment of track positions, making track location quick and simple. Once all tracks are locked in place, the software automatically detects all peaks in a horizontally aligned view.

In the aligned view, marker tracks (standards) can be selected and their peaks assigned, enabling calculation of molecular weight for all unknown peaks in the gel. Matching to a standard track may also be carried out, based on molecular weight, Rf or position from the top of a track. Results are exportable to Excelä which, using a simple formula, can rapidly convert the figures into genotype information. The software even allows report generation within the package or through Wordä.

Paul Ellwood, Syngene’s Divisional Sales and Marketing Director said: “With MADGE gels, peaks often migrate at different rates across and down the gels leading to the need for a series of track alignment steps. The feedback we have had on GeneTools MADGE is that it can easily cope with realignment and is superior to other packages in analysing peaks, even when the gels have been run with more than 96 tracks. This makes it unique among MADGE analysis systems and will greatly benefit molecular biologists involved in structural genomics, DNA arrays or gene expression research.”

High throughput 96 well MADGE gel

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Note to Editors

Syngene is a world-leading supplier of integrated imaging solutions for analysis and documentation of gel-based information. Syngene’s systems are used by more than 10,000 research organisations and over 50,000 individual scientists world-wide and include many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies and major research institutes.

Syngene, founded in 1997, is a division of the Synoptics Group based in Cambridge, UK. The Group’s other divisions, Synbiosis and Syncroscopy, specialise in digital imaging solutions for microbial and microscopy applications respectively. Synoptics currently employs 50 people in its UK and subsidiary operation in Frederick, USA. The Group has profitable revenue of almost $10 million and continues to grow rapidly.