Newsletter March 2006

Microarray Solutions
The SCHOTT Nexterion® Newsletter
N° 1
March 2006
Page
2 to our first issue
Foreword
Dr. Lutz Wehmeier
(General
Manager)
Welcome
of theby
“Microarray
Solutions”
newsletter,
designed to keep members of the life sci®
Short history
of SCHOTT Nexterion
ences community informed
about developments
at SCHOTT Nexterion and to highlight some of the interesting
microarray applications that our products are currently being used for.
Page 3
Nexterion HiSens Slides
“Signal and sensitivity enhancement through an optical interference coating for
DNA and protein microarray applications” is the title of new scientific paper written
by Dr. Rajendra Redkar, R&D Scientist at SCHOTT Nexterion in Duryea, PA.
“Microarray Solutions” gives you an insight into some of the key elements behind this paper and explains why users are reporting up to an 8x increase in signal intensity over
regular slides with the new HiSens slides from SCHOTT Nexterion.
Page 4
Ambion HiSens E evaluation produces “incredible” results
A report on Ambion's recent evaluation of Nexterion HiSens E slides with its miRNA probe
set in which it saw an average 8 fold increase in signal intensity over regular glass slides,
leading the company to declare that SCHOTT "has developed another premier microarray
substrate."
Page 5
Microplates for arraying
Ever thought about using the microtiter plate format for high throughput arraying?
Are you unhappy about the performance of 96 well polymeric and glass bottom
plates on the market? Not sure if your arrayer is capable of arraying into plates or
need advice on suitable microplate scanners?
Alistair Rees (International Product Manager for Coated Substrates) discusses the new
Nexterion MTP 96 microplate and highlights some of the compatible arrayers and scanners available on the market.
Page 7
New Product Developments
• New Surfaces for Protein and Glycan Microarrays
• New and Improved Slide Storage Boxes for Microarray Slides
Page 8
Technical Support in Focus
Having problems with signal intensity and or too high background? Interested in increasing spot size or improving spot morphology? Looking at ways to reduce the number of
protocol steps? SCHOTT Nexterion prides itself on offering the best technical support to
customers and starting in the next edition, “Microarray Solutions” will bring you a section
focusing on the most interesting trouble shooting issues addressed by our technical support team and a Q&A section dedicated to tech support questions received from our readers.
Page 9
In October 2004, SCHOTT Nexterion opened what it considers to be the most modern and hi-tech microarray slide production facility in the world.
Production Director Christian Jabschinsky gives you an overview of the challenges
SCHOTT faces to produce the highest quality microarray substrates and gives you a behind the scenes insight into how this multi-million dollar facility operates.
Page 11
Conference and Exhibition Calendar 2005/06
Microarray Solutions
page 2
Foreword
Dr. Lutz Wehmeier
General Manager
SCHOTT Nexterion
SCHOTT JENAer GLAS GmbH
SCHOTT Nexterion has come a long way since our formation back in
October 2002. For those of you who are not familiar with our story, here
is a brief overview of the changes that have occurred at Nexterion over
the past few years. The SCHOTT Nexterion unit was created as a result
of the Vision 2010 project during which the SCHOTT unit identified potential new market segments that had high growth potential. Nexterion Slide
A, one of the Aminosilane coated slides in our portfolio, was the first
product to be launched by the company in 2002. I joined the company
soon after as General Manager in 2003 having spent several years running the microarray business at MWG Biotech. We spent the next few
months working hard to integrate the microarray slide business that had
been acquired from Quantifoil, which resulted in the addition of several
new surface chemistries and reagents being added to our portfolio. Just
12 months later saw the completion of our new multi-million Euro slide
production facility in Jena, where all Nexterion products are now manufactured using modern, state-of-the-art technology. We also relocated the
Nexterion business unit from the SCHOTT corporate headquarters in
Mainz to SCHOTT Jenaer Glas in Jena. Jena is an award-winning biotechnology hotspot in Germany offering Nexterion potential synergies
with other biotech companies, as well as close links with the life science
driven academic community, making it an ideal location for our microarray business.
Nexterion® has grown rapidly since 2002 and we are now proud to offer
the broadest range of high quality substrates for DNA and protein arrays,
both in a slide a microplate format. We have the privilege of supplying
microarray consumables to some of the most important microarraying
sites in the world and our aim to introduce exciting and innovative
products into the microarray substrate market resulted this year in the
launch of the MTP 96 microplate array format, a natural progression from
our Multiplex (MPX) 16 and 48-well formats, and our new signal
enhancing slide coating called HiSens. We have very high expectations
for both products and will continue to strive to offer our customers the
most innovative, forward-thinking microarray consumables.
During 2005, SCHOTT Nexterion also entered into a number of
collaborations with high-profile life sciences companies in the US and
Europe and this is set to continue in 2006. A co-marketing agreement
with Operon was signed in 2005 and resulted in the launch of a kit of
slides and processing reagents optimized around the Operon 70 mer
oligonucleotides. We also recently finalized a co-marketing agreement
with Genomic Solutions and Alpha Innotech to promote arraying into
microplates and will be organizing joint workshops with these two
companies later this year. Several other important collaborations have
been established behind the scenes, some of which will be announced
before the end of the year, and these relationships clearly demonstrate
the outstanding reputation SCHOTT Nexterion is developing throughout
the world for microarray substrates and consumables.
We are excited about the future of SCHOTT Nexterion, and hope that
you will enjoy future issues of this e-newsletter as we update you on further developments. In this edition of “Microarray Solutions”, you will find
articles on our new range of HiSens and MTP products, plus some interesting information about our state-of-the-art production facility in Jena.
We have also included a feature on Ambion and their miRNA probe sets
and how HiSens slides have really changed the way of thinking at Ambion. If you have suggestions about ways to make these updates more
effective or articles you would like to see, please feel free to contact
Karola at [email protected].
Regards,
Dr. Lutz Wehmeier
Microarray Solutions
page 3
Nexterion HiSens Slides
“Signal and sensitivity enhancement through an optical
interference coating for DNA
and protein microarray applications” is the title of new
scientific paper written by Dr.
Rajendra Redkar, R&D Scientist at SCHOTT Nexterion in
Duryea, PA.
“Microarray Solutions” gives you
an insight into some of the key
elements behind this paper and
explains why users are reporting
up to an 8x increase in signal
intensity over regular slides with
the new HiSens slides from
SCHOTT Nexterion.
Nexterion HiSens Slides
Limitations of Regular Slides for Certain Applications
Microarray technology has been accepted as a preferred gene expression tool in basic science research such as genotyping, metabolic pathways, cancer research, toxicology, and functional genomics. Because
this technology utilizes thousands of DNA/antibody probes representing
the genome or proteome, it can be used for simultaneous detection and
identification of organisms as it offers several important advantages over
the standard PCR and ELISA-based detection methods. However, microarray technology has struggled to its logical progression into the diagnostic field due to a lack of standardization. One such problem is the lack
of sensitivity of the microarray data, making it difficult to separate the
experimentally induced variation from the true biological results. In many
instances the amount of RNA is limiting and the activity of low expressing
genes such as regulatory transcription factors may not be clearly quantifiable. Alternative labeling systems, signal amplification methods and
detection technologies have all been developed in an attempt to increase
the microarray sensitivity. However these alternatives are not costeffective and/or require cumbersome procedures, often deviating away
from standard protocols that researchers are comfortable with. The new
HiSens slides from SCHOTT Nexterion offer a cost-effective solution to
the sensitivity issue and are compatible with routinely used microarray
equipment and protocols, which coupled with higher detection sensitivity
could be critical in developing diagnostic assays.
Optical Interference Coating to Increase Signal Intensity
The optical interference coating deposited on the HiSens slides is comprised of a multi-layered, dielectric, thin-film interference coating. The
optical interference coating was carefully optimized to yield a product with
consistent quality that could easily be integrated into SCHOTT Nexterion’s large-scale production facility in Jena. Several specific production
steps were developed to maintain the integrity of the optical interference
coatings. Briefly, the thin-film dielectric coating works on the phenomenon
of optical interference, which can be either constructive or destructive. By
design, the interference is made constructive to enhance the photoabsorption of the Cy3 and Cy5 dyes at the surface or in the vicinity of the
surface (within ~60 nm from of the substrate), and also to reflect and
redirect the microarray fluorescence signals toward the detector during
scanning. The HiSens slide, therefore, differs from slides with metallic
coatings that are currently on the market where the signal is only enhanced due to reflection.
Validation experiments with HiSens slides have shown a greater than
eight-fold signal amplification in both Cy3 and Cy5 channels, thus providing an order of magnitude increase in signal intensity. This leads to significantly higher signal-to-noise ratios in microarray experiments. Any
functional coating (Epoxysilane, Aminosilane etc.) can be applied on top
of the optical interference coating for subsequent biomolecular attachment and consequently the HiSens slides can be used in place of traditional slides without any protocol modifications. The HiSens slides have
been tested using contact and non-contact microarray printers, as well as
laser and CCD-based scanners, and have proven to be fully compatible
with most commercially available microarray equipment.
HiSens for Different Applications
According to Alistair Rees, International Product Manager for Coated
Slides, a wide range of applications are likely to benefit from the use of
the HiSens slides. For example, applications in which researchers have
only a limited amount of target material, or in which amplification of mate-
Microarray Solutions
page 4
rial is difficult or problematic. The latter includes measurement of biopsy
samples and miRNA (see Ambion article below), as well as gene expression monitoring and diagnostics involving weak signals.
SCHOTT Nexterion officially launched the Nexterion HiSens slides in
January with the Nexterion Slide A (Aminosilane) and Nexterion Slide
E (Epoxysilane) functional coatings. HiSens slides will be available with
other Nexterion surface chemistries in the near future.
Dr. Rajendra Redkar's paper "Signal and sensitivity enhancement
through optical interference coating for DNA and protein microarray
applications" can be seen in full at the citation Journal of Biomolecular
Techniques 17(2): 122-130 (2006).
Ambion HiSens study produces “incredible” results
“HiSens E provided incredible
signal and high signal-to-noise,
even with significantly lower target concentration… and provided
an average of 8 fold increase in
signal intensity (over regular
slides)” – Jeffrey Shelton of Ambion, Inc.
Ambion’s mirVana miRNA Probe Set is a collection of amine-modified
DNA oligonucleotides targeting a comprehensive selection of human,
mouse, and rat miRNAs from miRBase. Developed in conjunction with
the mirVana™miRNA Labeling Kit, the mirVana miRNA Probe Set is designed for preparation of “miRNA arrays” on glass slides. Previously
Ambion, Inc. had used the Nexterion Slide E epoxy slides to produce the
miRNA arrays with great success. Ambion’s familiarity with the Slide E
surface chemistry made them the perfect candidate to test the new
HiSens E slides and Jeffrey Shelton in the R&D Division at Ambion was
sent some of the very first HiSens slides produced by SCHOTT to evaluate.
In the evaluation, the mirVana miRNA probes were printed onto 25
SCHOTT Nexterion® Slide E slides and 25 HiSens Slide E slides on the
same print run. The miRNA fraction from 20 µg, 5 µg, and 2 µg of RNA
from human bladder and lung were labeled using the mirVana™ miRNA
Labeling Kit, and fluorescent dyes were attached using standard coupling
procedures. The fluorescently labeled bladder and lung miRNA were
mixed and hybridized on duplicate arrays for each substrate type.
Slide E vs HiSens E 20 ug eq bladder
vs lung miRNA tested by Ambion
Nexterion®
Slide E
Nexterion®
HiSens E
“The HiSens slides provided an average of 8 fold increase in signal intensity for each starting mass equivalent, with no detectable loss of signal to
noise ratios. The signal I obtained from the 2µg equivalents was much
greater than I had ever seen for that starting mass amount. I normally
had to use greater than 20µg equivalents to obtain an equivalent signal
on the Slide E or similar substrates,” Jeffrey Shelton reported.
Shelton went on to say, “The amine-modification of the mirVana miRNA
probes makes them ideally suited for use with epoxy or aldehyde surface
chemistries. We have recommended SCHOTT Nexterion® Slide E microarray slides as they are convenient, easy to use, and provide consistent results. However, since this evaluation, it is our intention to recommend the Nexterion® HiSens E to customers who wish to maximize the
signal from small starting mass RNA fractions. With HiSens E, SCHOTT
Nexterion has developed another premier microarray substrate.”
Although other microarray slides claiming to enhance signal intensity
have appeared on the market in the past, with some still commercially
available today, this type of slide has failed on the whole to take off with
users typically complaining of poor slide reproducibility, long lead times to
get hold of the slides and usually a very high price. “I have tried other
manufacturers’ reflective substrate slides in the past and was not at all
impressed”, continued Shelton. “I went into this beta test of HiSens E
somewhat skeptical, but now I’m your newest customer! The HiSens E
slides provided incredible signal, high signal-to-noise, and no significant
increase in background.”
Microarray Solutions
For further information on Ambion,
Inc. and its range of products, including the mirVana miRNA Probe
Set, please visit the Ambion website at www.ambion.com
page 5
The results of the HiSens evaluation carried out by Ambion clearly demonstrate that HiSens slides could be an invaluable tool for applications in
which researchers have only a limited amount of target material, or in
which amplification of material is difficult or problematic. This is particularly the case for miRNA microarrays because the miRNA is only a minor
part of the whole RNA fraction (around 1/10000), but HiSens could also
be a useful tool for biopsy samples, as well as gene expression monitoring and diagnostics involving weak signals. Many signal amplification
techniques have been developed in recent years to combat this problem
but most of these techniques raise questions about biased amplification
that could ultimately affect the quality of the experimental results. With
Nexterion HiSens slides, these concerns are eliminated and Ambion is
likely to be the first of many customers to benefit from this exciting new
technology from SCHOTT Nexterion.
Microplates for arraying
Ever thought about using the
microtiter plate format for high
throughput arraying, but unhappy about the 96 well polymeric and glass bottom plates
on the market? Not sure if your
arrayer is capable of arraying
into plates or need advice on
suitable microplate scanners?
Alistair Rees (International Product Manager for Coated Substrates) discusses the new Nexterion MTP 96 microplate and
highlights some of the compatible
arrayers and scanners on the
market.
Nexterion® Microtiterplate Kit
Although the microtiter plate format has been a standard research tool for
clinical diagnostics and drug discovery for some time, it still has not become a popular microarray tool despite the recent introduction of highresolution plate scanners and compatible arrayers. Feedback from the
market, however, seems to indicate that this technology may finally be
coming to the fore and many companies are now actively looking to introduce products that will allow users to pursue high-throughput microarraying with the microtiter plate format.
SCHOTT’s new 96-well glass bottom microtiterplates are the result of two
years of development work at one of SCHOTT Nexterion’s R&D Centers
of Excellence in Duryea, PA and were developed in response to market
demand, which indicated that there were numerous limitations with conventional 96 well polymeric and existing glass bottom microtiter plates
utilized in microarraying.
Some of the weaknesses identified in these existing products included:
• Printable area per well: microarray print heads cannot access the
entire well plate area because the wells are recessed, thus limiting the
number of features per well and arrayer compatibility.
• Print time: the depth of the wells, and the subsequent additional Zaxis travel, makes printing time consuming.
• Well contamination: the intra-well print area may be restricted due to
the contamination of the well edges with bonding adhesive. In addition, adhesive out-gassing can affect functional coating performance.
• Coating range & uniformity: difficulty in uniformly applying functional
coatings to three dimensional polymeric microtiter plates.
• Plate flatness: conventional microtiter plates suffer from poor optical
transparence and flatness.
In collaboration with a high-profile biotech company in the San Francisco
Bay Area, and in consultation with several customers in Europe and the
US, SCHOTT Nexterion took up the challenge of designing a product
that eliminated the key weaknesses outlined above and offered its own
unique characteristics to assist customers. Dan Haines, Advanced Materials & Coatings Research Scientist at Schott North America in Duryea,
PA and head of the team that designed the Nexterion MTP microarray
products, is extremely satisfied with the final product design. “We are
excited to provide a new research platform that combines our high quality
coatings with an innovative 96-well microtiter plate design that makes the
transition from (multiplexed) microscope slides to microtiter plates seamless. The low-fluorescent glass plate can be printed/processed/scanned
without it ever being removed from its tray for those users desiring high
Microarray Solutions
page 6

Nexterion MTP 96 Microtiterplate
Kit consists of three main
components
Glass Plate
Superstructure
Tray, lid, fixing pins
and sealing film
throughput – alternatively, the plate can be quickly and easily removed/inserted depending on the experimental protocols and equipment
available to the researcher. Well contamination problems are resolved by
use of a recessed adhesive on the superstructure that preferentially binds
to the hydrophobic patterning material. The removable superstructure
allows for unencumbered full area printing of the wells while allowing
hybridization and wash volumes up to 200 µl/well. This platform has
been validated both by our customers and equipment partners Alpha
Innotech and Genomic Solutions. For a researcher desiring higher experimental throughput while maintaining current slide-based protocols
and procedures, the Nexterion MTP platform provides a flexible tool.”
Nexterion MTP 96 consists of three main components: a microarray
quality patterned glass substrate, a 96-well silicone superstructure and a
microtiter plate tray support. It is available as a complete kit or as separate components, with the glass substrates offered with either the Slide E
(Epoxy) or Slide A (Aminosilane) functional coatings or as uncoated glass
for custom applications. The Nexterion MTP 96 design fully conforms to
SBS (Society for Biomolecular Screening) standards and is suitable for
high-throughput robotic handling. One of the major benefits of the Nexterion MTP 96 plate is that the design of the kit components allows the
plate to be used in any make of microplate arrayer. Over 1000 spots can
be printed into each of the 96 wells due to the larger effective well area
(49mm2) and printing time is significantly reduced as the printing pins are
subject to less Z axis travel compared to conventional 96 well microtiter
plates.
Microplate Array Printers
Modern robotic arrayers, both contact and non-contact, are already
equipped to handle the 96-well format and many have pre-programmed
definitions for the Nexterion MTP 96 plates, thus simplifying set up.
However it may be necessary to purchase additional array control software and a replacement arraying bed to hold the microplates during printing.
The following table details arrayers can be modified to array into microplates:
Arrayer
Arrayjet AJ120
Aushon Biosystems 2470
Bio-Rad BioOdyssey Calligrapher
Bio-Rad VersArray ChipWriter Pro
GeneMachines OmniGrid Accent
Genetix QArray2
Genetix QArray mini
Genomic solutions MicroGrid
Lab Next Xact
Lab Next THOMAS™
PerkinElmer Piezorray
Scienion sciFLEXARRAYER
Telechem NanoPrint™
Deposition
method
Non-contact
Contact
Contact
Non-contact
Contact
Contact
Contact
Contact
Contact
Contact
Non-contact
Non-contact
Contact
Destination
microplate
20
20
2
1
6
16
4
16
2
9
5
4
12
The Genomic Solutions arrayers have defined parameters for the Nexterion MTP 96 microplates in the plate arraying software. A software upgrade is available from Genomic Solutions to accommodate the switch
from slides to Nexterion MTP 96 for the OmniGrid Accent model.
Microarray Solutions
page 7
Microplate Scanners
Arguably the biggest obstacle to the wider use of microplate arrays has
been the lack of access to microplate compatible high-resolution scanners. A number of suitable scanners are now commercially available and
the following table details some of the scanners that are compatible with
the Nexterion MTP 96 microplate:
Manufacturer
Model
Alpha Innotech Corporation
Blueshift Biotechnologies, Inc
NovaRay® Detection Platform
IsoCyte™ laser scanning
fluorimeter
Laser Scanner
TECAN
NEXTERION NEWSFLASH!
US Government Awards SCHOTT $1M
to Develop Microarray Platform for
Pathogen Detection
The US government has allotted $1
million of its defense appropriations bill to
Schott North America to develop a microarray-based platform for detecting
biological agents, Schott said recently.
According to Duryea, Penn.-based Schott
NA, the funding was secured through the
offices of Congressman Paul Kanjorksi
(D-Penn.). Schott will collaborate with the
University of Scranton's Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine to develop
the fully automated and multiplexed
microarray platform, the company said.
The new platform would be a 96-well
microarray, with the potential to screen
for up to 2,000 pathogens in each well,
Schott said.
The Alpha Innotech NovaRay Detection Platform is compatible with both
slides and microplates and offers multi-spectral imaging with eight emission wavelengths. A less well-known system is the IsoCyte™ Benchtop
Laser Scanner from Blueshift Biotechnologies in Sunnyvale, CA. The
scanner was developed for high throughput analysis of array-, bead- or
live cell-based assays in microplates and on slides and the company
claims that the system can scan a microplate such as Nexterion MTP 96
is less than two minutes. According to Blueshift Biotechnologies, the system accomplishes this task by fast “object” characterization (e.g. spots or
cells) and unique imaging in the fluorescence polarization domain.
SCHOTT Nexterion recently partnered with Genomic Solutions and
Alpha Innotech at the Plant & Animal Genome Conference in San Diego,
CA to demonstrate the ease of use and flexibility offered by the Nexterion MTP 96 system and its compatibility with the Genomic Solutions
MicroGrid and OmniGrid arrayers and the NovaRay Detection Platform
from Alpha Innotech. Jeremy Clarke, Global Product Manager at Genomic Solutions, was impressed by the level of interest shown at the
conference and clearly feels that the MTP format is now seriously being
considered as a suitable tool for high-throughput microarraying. “The
presentation was well attended and significant interest in the products
from all three companies was registered by attendees, both during and
after the event, suggesting that the microtiter plate format is finally being
considered by researchers as a serious microarray tool for the near future”, Clarke told “Microarray Solutions”. All three companies are committed to continuing this relationship in an effort to promote microplates and
three further workshops are planned for the US in May in San Francisco,
CA, Houston, TX and Boston, MA. Clarke went on to say, “We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with SCHOTT Nexterion and
Alpha Innotech. Together, we offer a range of complementary products
which provide the best solution for fulfilling the new protein arraying workflow”.
Details of the forthcoming workshops with Genomic Solutions and Alpha
Innotech will be available soon, including an agenda and list of invited
speakers for the three locations. Please contact Karola at [email protected] for further information.
Microarray Solutions
page 8
New Product Developments
SCHOTT Nexterion to Develop New Surfaces for Protein and Glycan Microarrays
In consultation with customers and collaborators, SCHOTT Nexterion
has identified protein and glycan microarrays as promising applications
with large growth potential for the future. The feedback that we have received from the market so far indicates that one of the biggest challenges
facing customers is the directed immobilization of probe molecules and
SCHOTT Nexterion is now focusing some of its R&D efforts on identifying suitable surfaces to resolve this issue.
We are also looking to expand our product portfolio by offering additional
surfaces for direct immobilization of different probe molecules, for example His-tag, maltose binding protein or lectin coatings. We are very interested in getting feedback from customers on what type of surfaces they
would like to see offered by SCHOTT Nexterion in the future. Please
feel free to send your suggestions to us and one of our R&D team members will contact you to discuss your ideas in greater detail. Please submit your ideas to [email protected] and help develop the next
generation microarray slide surfaces!
SCHOTT Nexterion Announces New and Improved Slide Storage
Boxes for Microarray Slides
New Nexterion® 25-slide storage box
SCHOTT Nexterion has introduced a new 25-slide storage box for its
microarray slides which will replace the current 5-slide mailers used for
Nexterion Slide A+ and AL. This new rigid slide box does not shed plastic particles or outgas plasticizer and allows SCHOTT Nexterion to send
the products in 25-slide storage boxes. Unique design features include
tabs that are moulded into the lid to prevent the glass substrates from
moving, thus reducing the risk of breakage during transportation, and a
new hinge lid with a catch which prevents accidental opening of the storage box.
Microarray Solutions
page 9
Technical Support in Focus
Name: Ruediger Dietrich
Location: Jena
Job Details: Director R&D
and Tech Support
Likes: good food
Dislikes: bad food
Interests: hiking, skiing,
kayaking, preparation of
food like cheese, marinated
herrings, sauerkraut etc.
Name: Mike Wotring
Location: Duryea
Job Details R&D Scientist
Likes: Travel
Dislikes: There's never
enough time to see everything!
Interests: Reading, cooking, hiking, kayaking
Having problems with signal intensity and or too high background? Interested in increasing spot size or improving spot morphology? Looking at
ways to avoid certain protocol steps? SCHOTT Nexterion prides itself on
offering the best technical support to customers. That’s why we will bring
you a section with the most interesting troubleshooting issues addressed
by our technical support team starting in next edition of “Microarray Solutions”. In addition, we planned to include a Q&A section dedicated to tech
support questions received from our readers.
Meet Nexterion’s Technical Support Team - Dr. Ruediger Dietrich, Director of R&D at the SCHOTT Nexterion HQ in Jena, Germany and Mike
Wotring, R&D Scientist at one of SCHOTT’s R&D Centers of Excellence
in Duryea, PA. As Nexterion’s Technical Support Specialists, Ruediger
and Mike are involved with all technical aspects of our product line - from
new product development to protocol optimization, as well as ongoing
customer application support.
Ruediger and Mike have been active in responding to numerous requests
for technical support from customers all over the world. Future editions of
“Microarray Solutions” will feature some of the most interesting troubleshooting issues addressed by Ruediger and Mike, including case studies
demonstrating how they responded to a specific customer application
issue and were able to help the customer obtain better results. The new
“Technical Support in Focus” section will also allow you to submit your
technical questions to Ruediger and Mike, some of which we will feature
in future editions of “Microarray Solutions”.
Do you have a protocol problem or need help optimizing your microarray
application? Please submit your question to:
[email protected]
Your question may be featured in future editions of the “Microarray Solutions”.
Microarray Solutions
page 10
State of the art Microarray Substrate Production Facility
In October 2004, SCHOTT Nexterion opened what it considers to be the most modern and
hi-tech microarray slide production facility in the world.
Production Director Christian
Jabschinsky gives you an overview of the challenges SCHOTT
faces to produce the highest
quality microarray substrates and
gives you a behind-the-scenes
insight into how this multi-million
dollar facility operates.
Float Glass Production
Glass Cleaning
Q: How long have you worked for SCHOTT? And where do you work
prior to SCHOTT?
I have worked for SCHOTT since September 2003. I transferred when
SCHOTT acquired the microarray business from Quantifoil Micro Tools
who were also based in Jena (Germany). I originally joined Quantifoil just
as they started their microarray slide business in May 1999, so I have
many years experience in microarray slide production! Prior to Quantifoil,
I studied medical engineering at the University of Applied Science in
Jena.
Q: How long has SCHOTT been producing microarray substrates?
SCHOTT originally developed and started to manufacture the first Nexterion microarray product, our Aminosilane coated Slide A, at Duryea in
Pennsylvania back in October 2002. At SCHOTT in Jena, we have been
producing coated slides since October 2004, when we commissioned the
new substrate production facility. Virtually all the personal involved in the
Quantifoil microarray slide business transferred to SCHOTT when they
acquired us. This means that we have microarray slide development and
production expertise that goes back over seven years.
Q: Why is Jena a good location for SCHOTT's biotech business?
The tradition for scientific based enterprises in Jena goes back to Carl
Zeiss, when in 1846 he created his first workshop here. Much more recently in 1996, the BioRegio network Jena won the German BioRegio
competition with its "bio instrument Jena" concept. The network consists
of established companies like Carl Zeiss and SCHOTT and the younger
companies like Jenoptik, together with over 31 start up companies many
spun off from the University. In addition, there are several major academic institutes in Jena also involved in the network. We have benefited
from our close cooperation with the University, in particular the Institute of
surface coating, as we have many students on placement working at
SCHOTT.
Q: Can you summarize the production process in your facility?
The first step is glass production.
One of the reasons why SCHOTT built the new slide production facility
here in Jena was because the glass we use for our microarray substrates
is manufactured on this site. This gives us total control over the quality of
glass we use for our microarray substrates. Large sheets of glass are
brought in from the production unit next door. We then carry the initial
processing in a “grey room” environment.
The pre-cleaned glass is laser cut into microscope slide size or other
formats. The laser cutting process is a technology developed by
SCHOTT, and is a major advantage from a production point of view as
the cut glass has perfect edges that do not require any further finishing.
In addition, the cutting process does not produce particles or micro fractures that might cause us problems later. After cutting the glass undergoes a “pre-quality” check to ensure that there are no scratches or defects in the glass.
If the slides are going to have bar codes, we apply a laser bonded bar
code to the glass at this stage. This is a very flexible system, and for
some customers we produce custom logos or dedicated bar codes such
as two-dimensional barcodes. For the new HiSens slides we apply the
optical coating at this stage prior to applying the functional coating. If
required, we can also add the MTP / MPX pattering to the substrates at
this point.
The next step is a glass cleaning process done under class 100 clean
room condition; at this point we either pack the cleaned uncoated slides
for sale to our customers or go on to apply the functional chemistry coatings. In our Jena plant, we have the option of five different coating methods. The facility has been designed to enable us to produce large slide
Microarray Solutions
Quality Control
Name: Christian Jabschinsky
Location: Jena
Job Details SCHOTT

Nexterion Production
Director
Personal facts: Married
with 2 daughters (who keep
him well occupied!)
Outside work interests:
Sports especially hand ball,
fine malt whisky, and adventure traveling
page 11
batches, but is flexible enough to process other substrate formats such
as the microplate.
After the cleaning the slides have to pass a three-stage quality control
1. 100% inspection of all slides by an automated camera based detector
system. This system checks the geometrical properties and the homogeneity of the glass. It also detects if there are any scratches or particles.
2. We analyze the coated surface by measuring the contact angle and
the background signal.
3. We put a representative number of slides from each batch through a
real wet lab “biological” experiment to ensure they perform as they
should.
The last stage is Packaging.
The substrates are packaged in specially designed boxes under inert
condition and in a light proof pouch. Then we apply label with product
information and expiry dates. We have a production planning system that
allows us to hold enough stock to meet our expected customer demand.
Q: What are the most challenging aspects of producing high quality
microarray slides?
We want to produce slides that are totally consistent batch to batch and
that arrive at our customers’ sites in perfect condition. The slide production process has many complex steps all of which have to be tightly controlled. In addition, we have to take into account shipping conditions
when we design our packaging.
Q: How does SCHOTT assure that costumers get the highest quality
microarray products?
We have developed an extensive quality assurance system. Every batch
of slides is supplied with a quality certificate. We expect to have DIN EN
ISO 9001 certification by the end of March 2006. The next step will be
DIN EN ISO 13485, a quality management certification for medical devices equivalent to GMP. We have a growing number of industrial slide
customers who demand very high quality standards.
Q: What key skills are required to do your job?
As we say in German a “gutes Rückgrat” - a good backbone because I
have demands from all quarters. I manage a team of twelve people with
different skill levels, so I have to be a good diplomat. I have to be multiskilled in my job, as I have to know about many different subjects: surface
chemistry, glass technology, molecular biology and mechanical engineering.
Q: What part of the job do you find most satisfying?
I enjoy having new challenges each day, it keep things interesting. It is
good to work in an environment with a lot of knowledgeable people who
are all pulling together in the same direction to produce a high quality
product. I really like it when we get positive feedback from our customers
about how much they like using our products.
Q: What would you say were the unique features of the Nexterion
microarray slides?
I am most proud of our Epoxy coated slides; tests have shown that our
Slide E is the most stable and reproducible epoxy coated slide. The next
thing is our glass. Being part of SCHOTT we are able to select the best
glass for our products. The borofloat glass has excellent physical and
chemistry properties. We are very excited about the potential of our new
HiSens optical coating, and I think it gives us an edge over our competitors.
Q: How has the range of functional slide coatings changed over the
years?
Although the DNA microarray slide market is still growing we are seeing a
much higher customer demand for surfaces designed for protein arraying.
Q: What new projects have you worked on recently?
I have been heavily involved in the MTP microplate and HiSens project
stabilizing the production process and starting to ramp up production.
Microarray Solutions
page 12
Conference and Exhibition Calendar 2005/06
Event: Advances in Microarray
Technology (AMT 2005)
Location: London
Date: 11 - 13 October 2005
Event: Plant and Animal genome
Location: San Diego, CA
Date: 17 January 2006
AMT is probably the leading European event in the microarray
field. More than 200 attendees and 17 exhibitors attended AMT
2005 to discover the latest developments in microarray technology. SCHOTT Nexterion presented a talk entitled “Future
developments in microarray glass slides technology”.
Please contact us at [email protected] if you
would like a pdf copy of the presentation.
The protein and microplate array workshop jointly presented by
SCHOTT, Genomic solutions and Alpha Innotech was well received. If you would like a copy of the “Protein Microarrays:
Approaches to Printing” presentation by Dr Steven Suchyta
Applications Scientist at Genomic Solutions Inc. please contact
us at [email protected].
Event: Lab Automation 2006
Location: Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, California
Date: 21 - 25 January 2006
SCHOTT Nexterion officially launched the Nexterion MTP 96
microplate and the Nexterion HiSens reflective slides at Lab
Automation 2006, generating a huge amount of delegate interest.
Event: Statusseminar Chiptechnologien,
Location: Dechema Frankfurt
Date: 2- 3 Feb 2006
The event was very well attended with over 200 delegates
mainly from Germany.
Details of the programme:
www.events.dechema.de/Programm-page-82728.html
Exhibition and showcase together with OPERON
Event: Genomes to Systems
Conference 2006
Location: Manchester, UK
Date: 22 - 24 Mar 2006
If you would like a copy of the “Nexterion HiSens Slides: A
Cure for the Sensitivity Blues – Achieve Higher Signals
with Less Target” presentation by Dr Oliver Kirchner Applications Scientist at SCHOTT Nexterion please contact us at
[email protected].
Details of the programme: www.genomestosystems.org
Event: WC on Microarray
Technology 2006
Location: Vancouver / CA
Date: 24 – 25 Mar 2006
www.worldmicroarraycongress.org/
Event: AACR Annual Meeting
2006
Location: Washington, DC / USA
Date: 01 – 05 Apr 2006
www.aacr.org/page5701.aspx
Event: 4th Symposium of The
Wellcome Trust Funded MultiCollaborative Microbial Pathogen
Microarray Facility (BµG@S)
Location: Wellcome Trust Conference Centre, Hinxton, Cambridge UK
Date: 24 - 26 May 2006
www.ugs.sgul.ac.uk/conference
Event: Chips to Hits
Location: Boston/USA
Date: 25 -28 September 2006
www.chipstohits.com
Microarray Solutions
page 13
Contact
Fore more information about our complete product range please contact
us or visit our hompage.
www.schott.com/nexterion
Microarray Solutions
SCHOTT Jenaer Glas GmbH
Otto-Schott-Straße 13
07745 Jena
Germany
Phone:
+49-(0)3641-681-91966
Fax:
+49-(0)3641-681-970
E-Mail:
coatedsubstrate@ schott.com
Webshop: www.schott.com/nexterion/shop