Major UK University uses ChemiGenius For Important Research on Blood Vessel Injury

November 16th 2004 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, UK: Syngene, a world-leading manufacturer of image analysis solutions, is pleased to announce that its ChemiGenius2 chemiluminescent image analysis system is being used at the University of Sheffield, a highly ranked centre for biological sciences, to speed up research into the causes of blood vessel leakage.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield are using the ChemiGenius2 to analyse the amount of a Tie receptor present on chemiluminescent Western blots stained with SuperSignalTM. Since the Tie receptor has been implicated in helping prevent blood vessel injury during inflammatory responses, the researchers are hoping that information on this and other receptors will lead to therapies to control life threatening blood vessel leaks following coronary bypass surgery.

Dr Marie Marron, a Research Fellow in the Division of Clinical Sciences at the University of Sheffield said: “Prior to using a ChemiGenius2, we exposed our blots to film, scanned in the film to PC and then applied software analysis to produce the raw densitometry data. This was very time consuming because for each antibody we use to detect the Tie receptor, we had to optimise the exposure conditions, which meant using a large number of films to get a correctly exposed image.”

“With the ChemiGenius2 it is much quicker since the system detects if the blot is over saturated, so you only keep the images you want. Also the quantification and analysis of the immunoblot is easier as you can transfer the densitometric data straight into an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis,” added Dr Marron.

Laura Sullivan, Syngene’s Divisional Manager commented: “We are delighted to see a major university using the ChemiGenius2 to speed up the chemiluminescent research part of a project to help unravel the mysteries of blood vessel leakage. Their work could be translated to the clinical setting, which is why using the ChemiGenius2 for obtaining reproducible results that can be captured, recorded and analysed to GLP standards is so important.”
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SuperSignal is a registered trademark of Pierce Biotechnology Inc.

For Further Information Contact:
Jayne Arthur, Syngene, Beacon House, Nuffield Road, Cambridge, CB4 1TF, UK.
Tel: +44(0) 1223-727123 Fax +44 (0) 1223-727101
Email: jayne.arthur@syngene.com  Web site: www.syngene.com

Dr Marie B Marron, Division of Clinical Sciences (North), University of Sheffield, Northern General Hospital, Herries Road, Sheffield, S5 7AU, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 114 271 4658 Fax: +44 (0) 114 261 9587
Email: m.marron@sheffield.ac.uk  Web site: www.sheffield.ac.uk  

Editor Contact:
Dr Sue Pearson, PO Box 170, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 3GD, UK.
Tel/Fax +44 (0) 1462-635327 Email: sue6.pearson@ntlworld.com

Note to Editors

About Syngene

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 Cambridge based Synoptics Group. The Group’s other divisions, Syncroscopy and Synbiosis, specialise in digital imaging solutions for microscopy and microbial 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.

About the Division of Clinical Sciences

The Division of Clinical Sciences is part of the University of Sheffield, a highly ranked international centre for biological research. Located at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, UK, scientists in the Division conduct research into the biology of blood vessels and have a particular interest in the response to injury of blood vessels following procedures including coronary bypass and aneurysm surgery, balloon angioplasty and vein grafts.