Real-time qPCR platform enhancing research activities within the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology and the Laboratory of Experimental Radiotherapy

Real-time qPCR is essential to the core research projects established at the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology and the Laboratory of Experimental Radiotherapy. This application concerns a new RT-qPCR device (as a replacement of an old instrument), as well as a pipetting robot. This combination will allow upscaling of the experiments from 96-well to 384-well plate format. Automatic pipetting will increase our efficiency and improve precision, accuracy, and reproducibility. Numerous projects within our laboratory will make use of this technology to (i) examine the role of specific genes in radiation biology and response, (ii) investigate the biology and treatment of soft tissue and bone sarcoma and (iii) develop prognostic/predictive biomarkers in breast cancer. Importantly, the new real-time qPCR platform will be installed in the shared PCR facility of the Department of Oncology, which will stimulate the use of this equipment by many other laboratories.

Keywords:Real-time qPCR, radiation biology, sarcoma, translational research, breast cancer

Disciplines:Cancer biology, Cancer therapy