Tailored gene expression microarray services to study transcription factor networks

Professor Tariq Enver and his team at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, have been using OGT’s gene expression microarray services in their research work. Prof Enver’s group studies how transcription factor networks regulate cell fates of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and how this regulation breaks down in leukaemia.

“My first interaction with the OGT team was in 2006, when I visited with Professor Peter Andrews of the University of Sheffield, to talk about possible single cell approaches and small cell number arrays for Peter’s work on human embryonic stem cells,” Prof Enver explained. “I was very interested to find out about the range of technologies that OGT was developing. Later, we talked about OGT’s technologies that could help my own blood stem cell interest, and that was when our relationship really took off. We are collaborating with OGT on MRC-funded projects studying, at system level, how stem cells instigate the decision of self renewal versus differentiation.”

“We have a very good two-way relationship,” Prof Enver continued. “If we are ever thinking about using a gene expression or an array-based approach in our research we would contact OGT, and OGT often contacts us for our thoughts when they are developing a technology that may be helpful to us. I don’t consider them to be a commercial organisation, because the OGT team is like a scientific group, and our relationship is very collaborative. We always like to involve OGT in our work, because the input we receive always add value beyond merely a service.”