NimbleGen Systems has developed a proprietary hybridization system, including protocols, buffers, hybridization cassettes, hardware, and temperature control instrumentation that generate highly reproducible and sensitive hybridizations. These protocols have been optimized to require minimum amounts of sample, while providing a hybridization volume that can be continually mixed over the time-course of the incubation. This method generates arrays with extremely high inter-array reproducibility (up to r²>0.99) and very low intra-array coefficient of variation (cv < 12%) across the array surface.

In a typical gene expression experiment, each gene is represented by a minimum of 10 and as many as 25 probe-pairs complementary to different portions of the mRNA transcript. This guarantees that at least 10 independent measurements of mRNA concentration are included in the final value for the expression level for the gene, resulting in more reliable and reproducible gene expression calculations. In addition, these 10 to 25 probe-pairs are distributed evenly across the surface of the array. This distribution effectively eliminates problems associated with any local variation in the spatial uniformity or noise in the hybridization, because expression values are derived from a minimum of ten different locations on the array.

For applications such as ChIP-chip and CGH, where sample quantities are more constrained, we offer the NimbleGen Hybridization System. This system assures uniformity and high sensitivity while maintaining minimal working sample volumes.