Digital Gene Expression provides a hypothesis free, global, and quantitative analysis of the entire transcriptome. The application is an open-ended tool that analyzes the level of expression of virtually all genes in a sample by counting the number of individual mRNA molecules produced from each gene. The advantage is that there is no requirement that genes be identified and characterized prior to conducting an experiment.

The application will interrogate the entire transcriptome — all mRNA present. It is not limited to only the known transcripts from the public domain. Due to the highly sensitive and quantitative nature of the Helicos output, each signature generated in the dataset can be enumerated, which will allow not only for the detection of highly expressed transcripts but also for the detection of very rare transcripts represented by only a few molecules of mRNA per cell. With the depth of coverage provided by the assay, transcripts that have counts of zero can be confidently concluded as absent from a sample.

The digital nature of the data output enables:

• The comparison of expression levels of different transcripts within the same sample
• The comparison of transcript levels between samples
• The merging with data sets from other expression profiling technologies

Of the various microarray and non-microarray technologies currently available, Helicos-driven Digital Gene Expression will provide significant advantages for generating the type of complete datasets that will help to facilitate quantitative hypothesis-free experiments in the era of digital biology.

For more information on Digital Gene Expression, please contact collaborations@helicosbio.com