I just attended the Planet xMAP meeting in Austun TX. I wanted to see if this technology would be a good fit for our work (nucleic acid-based clinical diagnostic testing). The meeting was attending mostly by 'converts' already invested in the technology. I'd like to hear some independent views (pros and cons) of this technology from end-users, instead of from those making kits that run on the platform.
Thanks,
Neil

nquigley,

Xmap has very limited work done for PCR so far... However, shows alot of promise for multiplexing PCR detection although sensitivity is a bit reduced right now... A company we started working with a year or two ago has some promising "super primers" that offer huge potential. Take a look at Genaco.

Hello I would like to know if anybody have some information about the use of Luminex in the expression of genes. Is necessary to do asymmetric PCR to detect the genes?

There is a company called Panomics that has Gene Expression Assays for Luminex. We are going to be testing it but as yet have not. The protocol looks easy enough however.

Well, I'm not sure that I am completely independent since I used to work in Technical Applications at Luminex and now am an end-user. The technology is great - the biggest problem is with assay optimization. I did not do further sensitivity optimization since we had what we needed, but on a nucleic acid-based test I was detecting 10^6 - 10^7 molecules which correspondes to 10^5 - 10^6 genome copies. With further optimization this could be improved. The instrument is relatively inexpensive beads are pricey. However, after initial optimization you can reduce the bead expense. The software is lacking some and the software analysis but there are other options available.

Again, I'm not sure how biased I am since we do consulting for customers doing assay development on their platform.

Check out the Broad Institute - they also published in Nature using Luminex.

The technology is promising and guys out there are already supporting it. See this company, PREMIER Biosoft, it has designed a commercial software for multiplex assay design for Luminex based multiplex assays

It is named as PrimerPlex.