Agilent Technologies donates microarrays to Vanderbilt University for courses in genomic technologies, bioinformatics
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) today announced that Agilent has donated cDNA microarray kits valued at $66,000 to the medical center. VUMC expects to use the product donation to improve and develop undergraduate and graduate courses in genomics and bioinformatics.
“As a leading center for biological and medical research, VUMC offers unique opportunities for learning to our students,” said Professor Shawn Levy, director of VUMC’s core gene expression facility, the Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource (VMSR). “Agilent’s donation will enable our students to gain real-world training with microarrays, an important tool in genomics, gene expression and systems biology. In addition, the microarrays will provide our bioinformatics students and fellows with very defined and controlled data sets for their research projects.”
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is recognized internationally for its innovation and leadership in biomedical research, education and patient care. In the past four years, it has led all other U.S. universities in growth rate of National Institutes of Health-sponsored funding. VUMC has supported microarray-based research through the VMSR since 2000. The VMSR performs analysis for approximately 1,800 arrays per year and has served more than two-thirds of the researchers on campus.
About Microarrays
Commonly used in the research of cancer and other diseases, a microarray is a 1″ x 3″ glass slide printed with thousands of DNA probes, each of which corresponds to a unique gene. In any given type of cell, only 10 to 30 percent of genes are expressed, or active. Microarrays can be used to measure the activity of each expressed gene in a cell and to compare the differences between diseased cells and their healthy counterparts. They are used to identify genes potentially involved in disease, to research new therapeutics, and to find prognostic and diagnostic indicators that might facilitate a more personalized approach to medical care. Agilent is a leading provider of microarray-based gene expression research solutions with approximately 500 customers worldwide.
About Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a top-20 NIH-funded academic research institution. It consists of Vanderbilt University Hospital; Vanderbilt University Schools of Medicine and Nursing; the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. VUMC faculty members have been awarded two Nobel Prizes in medicine and physiology.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company’s 28,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2003. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com .
