Abstract
Overview
The separation of nucleic acids is a necessary precursor to a wide range of
life science research and diagnostic techniques. Familiar methods such as
cloning/subcloning and Southern and Northern blotting frequently rely on the
electrophoretic separation of nucleic acid fragments generated by
amplification or restriction digestion. Recently emerging methods such as gene
silencing and miRNA analyses often hinge on the separation and sizing of short
polynucleotides isolated from cell or tissue samples or synthesized in vitro.
For some techniques, such as mutation detection or STR analysis, resolution in
the range of a few bases may be required. For other methods, like standard
cloning or Southern blotting, a resolution in the tens to hundreds of bases
may suffice.
Percepta' s 2008 Nucleic Acid Separation Dashboard™ dives deeply into the
characteristics of the market for nucleic acid separation products. This
Dashboard reveals key market indicators for the nucleic acids separations
market as a whole as well as for the following sub-segments:
- Analysis of amplified DNA (includes AFLP) Analysis of restriction digested
DNA (includes RFLP)
- Analysis of cRNA or total RNA quality
- Analysis of small RNA molecules Analysis of synthetic DNA or RNA
- STR analysis
- HLA typing analysis
- Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (includes mapping)
- Mutation detection (includes SSCP, DGGE)
Survey Methodology
In August of 2008, Percepta fielded the 23-question Nucleic Acid Separation
Survey to a subset of the company' s panel of life scientists. Individuals were
invited by e-mail to click through to a webpage at bioanalytix.com where the
survey was hosted. Invitations were delivered on August 19, 2008 and results
collected through August 26th. A total of 548 scientists completed the survey,
of which 526 are actively engaged in performing nucleic acid separation and 8
plan to perform nucleic acid separation in the next 12 months. Results based
on the aggregate of collected responses are revealed in this Nucleic Acid
Separation Life Science Dashboard™.
Respondent Demographics
Respondents from the academic, government and commercial market segments are
well represented, with 13.6% of respondents employed in an industry setting.
72.5% of respondents are from North America, while 24.8% reside in Europe.
Junior (Lab Tech, Grad Students), mid level (Post-Doc, Lab Manager) and senior
(Professor/PI, Group Leader) scientists are well represented in the data set,
with the most cited job titles being
Professor/Principal Investigator (19.2% of respondents), Scientist/Senior
Scientist (17.3% of respondents) and Post-Doctoral Fellow (14.6%).
A wide variety of scientific areas of specialization is also evident, led by
Molecular Biology (named by 34.9% of respondents as their primary area of
expertise) and Microbiology/Infectious Disease/Virology (named by 9.9% of
respondents). Biochemistry (9.7%), Genetics (8.6%), and Cell Biology (7.3%)
are the only other primary areas of specialization named by more than 6% of
respondents.
Small (1-5 scientists), medium (6-20 scientists) and large (>20 scientists)
laboratories are well represented: 39.6% of respondents work in labs where 1
to 5 people perform experiments; 47.1% in labs with 6 to 20, and the remaining
13.3% in labs with greater than 20 bench scientists.
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