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ProbeLibrary™ Real-Time PCR Assay System

Exiqon developed the ProbeLibrary™ to provide the ultimate blend of specificity and flexibility for researchers doing quantitative gene expression real-time PCR analysis. ProbeLibrary™ is now known as the Universal ProbeLibrary, available exclusively from Roche Diagnostics.

Please visit the Universal ProbeLibrary homepage at Roche Diagnostics and experience the power of this unique product that provides all the real-time PCR assays you need for 7 model organisms.

Key benefits:

Save Time - from idea to assay in 24 hours
Flexibility - Instantly generate cross-validation assays
Simplicity - fits into your current workflow and real-time PCR protocols
Specificity - uses sequence specific probes in combination with carefully selected primer pairs
Convenience - all the assays you need are in your freezer, over 2.5 million assays are available

What is a Universal ProbeLibrary?
Universal ProbeLibrary is a combination of 90 probes and unique assay design software that delivers real-time PCR assays for virtually any transcript in an organism.

The Probes
Each Universal ProbeLibrary is comprised of 90 real-time PCR probes. The probes are designed and pre-validated to provide transcriptome-wide coverage for specific organisms. Each probe can be ordered separately, or as a complete kit. So far, Universal ProbeLibrary kits have been developed for Human, Mouse, Rat, Arabidopsis, Drosophila, C.elegans, and Primates.

The probes are dual-labelled with a reporter fluorophore and dark quencher. They are used in standard real-time PCR assays, on standard real-time PCR instrumentation, see the Application Note "Instruments and Mastermixes" in the Documentation Box.

Universal ProbeLibrary real-time PCR probes use a unique nucleotide chemistry called LNA™. This means that the length of Universal ProbeLibrary probes is shortened significantly (to 8 or 9 bases) compared to normal PCR probes, which are typically 25-30 bases. Importantly, shortened LNA™ PCR probes have the high melting temperature required for real-time PCR, plus single-mismatch discrimination.

A major benefit of reduced probe length is that each probe is able to target many transcripts within an organism's transcriptome. Just 90 probes are able to provide transcriptome-wide coverage. In fact, each Universal ProbeLibrary probe can typically be used to assay around 7000 transcripts. The unique feature of the reduced probe length combined with careful selection of recurring sequence tags in the target transcriptome is the key to the Universal ProbeLibrary concept.

If each Universal ProbeLibrary™ probe can detect multiple transcripts, how do we ensure gene-specific assays? The answer lies in the unique ProbeFinder™ software at our Assay Design Center.

The Assay Design Center
The Assay Design Center (available at www.universalprobelibrary.com) contains the free web-based ProbeFinder™ software that optimally designs intron-spanning assays for your target gene. Just enter the gene ID or sequence and ProbeFinder™ will design gene-specific assays using probes from the kit in combination with primers. Assays designed using ProbeFinder™ have a 96 % assay design success rate.

ProbeFinder™ uses a number of features to provide an assay that is as gene-specific as possible. These include: optimized primer design, in silico PCR, intron predictions and design of intron-specific assays. Furthermore, assays can be designed for splice variants for splice variants families of transcripts.

For further information, view the material under Documentation to the right.