Learn more at http://www.lifetechnologies.com/mirna
Alexander (Sasha) Vlassov describes mirVana miRNA mimics and inhibitors and their applications for functional analysis.
My name is Sasha Vlassov. I am Senior Staff Scientist and a Group Leader at Ambion that is part of Life Technologies.
MicroRNAs are really cool molecules that were discovered about ten- fifteen years ago. They are part of the bigger family of non-coding RNAs. And it is becoming clear right now, that they have a variety of very complex functions within our organisms. At some point scientists were absolutely sure that proteins control everything within our body. But within the last decade, it became crystal clear that microRNAs are very important regulators. And they control our development, they control many other things within our body, and their networks are so complex that at the moment for very few microRNAs they are completely understood.
MicroRNA mimics are synthetic double stranded synthetic molecules with limited chemical modifications that very closely mimic the naturally present microRNAs. And when they are introduced into cells by transfection, they lead to elevation of the microRNA levels. microRNA inhibitors are chemically synthesized single-stranded oligonucleotides with heavy chemical modifications- that bind and irreversibly inhibit the endogenous microRNAs. So they are used for downregulation studies. In most cases, microRNAs mimics and inhibitors are used side by side, within the same experiment, and by an analyzing the outcome, people can draw conclusions about the functions of the given microRNA.
MicroRNA mimics and inhibitors, especially the latest generation mirVana, allows you to complete the microRNA function analysis experiments within the shortest time frame. At the moment we offer the complete solution for the microRNA functional analysis, that address all researchers needs . We have not only synthetic oligonucleotides, but transfection reagents, sample prep solutions and TaqMan® assays.
I don't think there are any other tools that come close to our product. We have great potency and specificity for both of them. They're active at very low dose. We have amazing transfection reagents that results in superior delivery in a wide variety of cell lines, including difficult to transfect ones. And we have success in animal models as well, with Invivofeciamine 2.0. But also we have very efficient Research and Development team, that is always ready to support these products, answer any questions, support any projects, plan experiments, do trouble shooting.
