Welcome to MOLTOOLS
Advanced Molecular Tools for Array-based Analyses of Genomes
New molecular tools will give us the opportunity to identify all molecules encoded in our genomes, even at the single-molecule level, and to do this in individual patient samples.
The EU FP6 project MolTools aims to promote the development and implementations of such tools by bringing together leading European groups in the area of molecular technology development.
We welcome you to come see us at this website, to benefit from and to influence the development of molecular tools for the postgenomic era.
An EU/FP6 Integrated Project
The MolTools consortium started on January 1st 2004, as a joint research programme bringing together 12 leading European academic groups, four biotech SMEs and one US laboratory working in the area of postgenomic technology development. The partners have pioneered a series of important molecular techniques and will now work together to establish next-generation tools for molecular analysis.
MolTools is a 3-year project, funded by the European Union FP6 program with 9M euros. Its scientific aims are to establish genome analysis technologies set to monitor extensive molecular repertoires, and with the capacity to investigate even single molecules. Molecular technologies are in a very rapid state of development, the scope for improvement is extreme, and methods are clearly rate limiting for the progress of biology and biotechnology generally. This project represents an important initiative to integrate leading European scientists active in an area of technology development which is central to modern biology.
The scientific goal of MolTools is to develop more powerful array-based research tools to examine DNA, RNA and proteins. For a description of our science please go to Projects. The MolTools project is expected to be of value to the research community but also to be an infusion into the biotech-industry in Europe.
Potential impact of MolTools
MolTools participants have strong records of developing techniques that are now used by companies such as Affymetrix, Agilent, Amersham Biosciences, Applied Biosystems, BiopsyTec, Biotage, Bruker Daltonics, Discerna, DynaMetrix, Epigenomics, GPC-Biotech, Hybaid, Integragen, Lynx, Micro Discovery, Molecular Staging, Mosaic Technologies, ParAllele Bioscience, PEPperPRINT, Prot@gen, PSF AG, and Scienion. By strengthening the interactions between research groups in this consortium, we hope to provide a critical mass that will stimulate transfer of inventions from academia to established industries, and that will also promote the establishment of new companies.
Brussels presentation
MolTools Scientif Advisor Dr Marc Zabeau (Methexis Genomics, Gent) presented the MolTools consortium at the media briefing 'Communicating European Research - What's in it for you' in Brussels on May 12th 2004. Click here to read his presentation and look at the powerpoint file.
MINIATURIZATION IN FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS AND PROTEOMICS
Nature Reviews Genetics 6, 465-476 (2005); written by MolTools partners Sascha Sauer, Bodo M. H. Lange, Johan Gobom, Lajos Nyarsik, Harald Seitz & Hans Lehrach at MPG, Berlin.
Abstract
Proteins are the key components of the cellular machinery responsible for processing changes that are ordered by genomic information. Analysis of most human proteins and nucleic acids is important in order to decode the complex networks that are likely to underlie many common diseases. Significant improvements in current technology are also required to dissect the regulatory processes in high-throughtput and with low cost. Miniaturization of biological assays is an important prerequisite to achieve these goals in the near future.
Genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms by MALDI mass spectrometry in clinical applications
New Review by MolTools partners Jörg Tost and Ivo Gut, published in J Clin Biochem April 2005
Abstract
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry has become one of the most powerful and widely applied technologies for SNP scoring and determination of allele frequencies in the post-genome sequencing era. Although different strategies for allele discrimination combined with MALDI were devised, in practice only primer extension methods are nowadays routinely used. This combination enables the rapid, quantitative, and direct detection of several genetic markers simultaneously in a broad variety of biological samples. In the field of molecular diagnostics, MALDI has been applied to the discovery of genetic markers, that are associated with a phenotype like a disease susceptibility or drug response, as well as an alternative means for diagnostic testing of a range of diseases for which the responsible mutations are already known. It is one of the first techniques with which whole genome scans based on single nucleotide polymorphisms were carried out. It is equally well suited for pathogen identification and the detection of emerging mutant strains as well as for the characterization of the genetic identity and quantitative trait loci mapping in farm animals. MALDI can also be used as a detection platform for a range of novel applications that are more demanding than standard SNP genotyping such as mutation/polymorphism discovery, molecular haplotyping, analysis of DNA methylation, and expression profiling. This review gives an introduction to the application of mass spectrometry for DNA analysis, and provides an overview of most studies using SNPs as genetic markers and MALDI mass spectrometric detection that are related to clinical applications and molecular diagnostics. Further, it aims to show specialized applications that might lead to diagnostic applications in the future. It does not speculate on whether this methodology will ever reach the diagnostic market.
Peptide nucleic acids on microarrays and other biosensors
Abstract
The analysis of biomolecules using microarrays and other biosensors has a significant role in molecular biotechnology, and will become even more important in the future as a versatile tool for research and diagnostics. For many applications, the synthetic DNA mimic peptide nucleic acid (PNA) could be advantageous as a probe molecule, owing to its unique physicochemical and biochemical properties. PNA exhibits superior hybridization characteristics and improved chemical and enzymatic stability relative to nucleic acids. Furthermore, its different molecular structure enables new modes of detection, especially procedures that avoid the introduction of a label. In our opinion, all of these factors contribute significantly toward the establishment of faster and more reliable analytical processes and opens new fields of application.