FLEX™ and MicroFLEX™ 
Library Construction

One of AlphaGene's principal competitive advantages is embodied in the Company's ability to produce gene libraries that contain very large quantities of full-length cDNAs, which include complete protein encoding sequences. These libraries provided the foundation for AlphaGene's successful isolation of full-length secreted protein encoding clones for Genetic Institute's DiscoverEase program and its gene expression microarray program with NEN.

Complete understanding of gene structure, function, and regulation requires a full-length clone, containing the complete protein coding sequences.

Using the Company's proprietary FLEX technology, AlphaGene scientists have constructed more than 150 cDNA libraries, representing more than 20 of the major organs and tissues in the body.

MicroFlex^TM Technology

The Company's proprietary FLEX methods have been optimized to create a new "MicroFLEX^TM technology (patent application pending). This MicroFLEX technology can achieve similar performance to the FLEX libraries, while using only 3% or less of the messenger RNA usually required and without any DNA amplification step involved. This means AlphaGene can utilize smaller tissue samples frequently encountered with biopsy material. 

MicroFLEX libraries have been shown to contain between 50% to 70% full-length clones. The high titers of full-length clones and average insert size in these MicroFLEX libraries are consistent with the standards achieved in the Company's standard FLEX libraries constructed with larger amounts of source material.

Since the proprietary MicroFLEX technology does not require the use of a DNA amplification step (PCR), which favors short sequences, the libraries constructed give a more accurate representation of the RNA abundance content of the starting material. The Company is continuing to advance this technology with the goal of further reducing the required amount of source material (NanoFLEX). 

These libraries are expected to be preferred for gene expression studies since the comparison between normal and diseased states can be performed with minimum distortion or presence of artifacts. MicroFLEX libraries should offer significant advantages over other methods by enabling researchers to use small amounts of difficult to obtain tissues to isolate previously undiscovered rare full-length genes encoding important therapeutic proteins or target genes.