LGC’s proprietary KASP genotyping assay has been successfully compared to an alternative technology for designing custom genotyping assays.
A team of leading scientists at the University of Nottingham carried out a direct study of LGC’s custom-designed KASP chemistry and existing TaqMan genotyping assays, and found that using KASP genotyping produces better results than other technologies.
The study compared the effectiveness of the two technologies in successful design of custom genotyping assays for a rare deleterious mis-sense coding variants suggested to have association with Alzheimer’s disease.
Through an unbiased approach, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered many new disease risk genes associated with complex disorders, however, identifying the functional variant directly involved in a disease is more complicated.
Direct genotyping in replication case-and control-samples is often required to confirm a variant’s association with a given disease. It is therefore important to have a reliable genotyping assay available.
LGC KASP assays and reagents product manager Joris Parmentier said that the company has optimised its KASP assay design algorithms and validation processes to ensure that it can design effective assays for all sorts of genetic variation, including rare variants.
"We work continuously to improve our chemistry and are proud that renowned academic centres such as the University of Nottingham find our KASP technology outperforms other genotyping methods in designing effective assays.
"These results show that our KASP technology is applicable in a variety of research applications. We remain proud that we continue to contribute to our customers’ research by helping them find and validate the mutations responsible for human diseases," Parmentier added.
The KASP genotyping assay was developed for use in LGC’s own service laboratories, where it has been in use for over ten years. It can be purchased as a product (KBD/KOD) for in lab use, or as a genotyping service.