Trevigen's New CometChip® Platform Revolutionizes Comet Assay

April 7, 2016 - Five years in development, Trevigen's CometChip® high throughput GenTox platform allows a 5,000% increase in throughput over the original comet assay procedure. In market testing the CometChip® platform, there has been overall praise for the accuracy and speed in high throughput analysis. In one laboratory, 1,000,000 comets were analyzed in two weeks – a previously unheard-of feat.

The Problem - The comet assay has been well known in the research community as the only available highly sensitive, direct approach for the measurement of DNA damage and repair. However, adoption and routine use of the assay in the safety screening for drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, pesticides, fungicides and other compounds affecting health and the environment has been hampered by technical issues including test-to-test and lab-to-lab reproducibility, accuracy, and the inordinate time required for high volume testing.

The Solution - These issues were solved in a multiple-year, concerted development program with which Trevigen perfected the CometChip® high throughput integrated platform, consisting of four major components:

CometChip® Nanopore technology
Exclusively licensed from MIT and developed by Trevigen

CometChip® is a disposable gel containing thousands of 30 micron nanopores, designed to capture and array cells, attached to a specially treated glass slide, indexed for 96 well locations. The chip is placed in a separate macrowell former which positions 6 mm diameter wells registered over each of the indexed 96 well locations on the supporting glass slide. The well former is used to load cells, wash cells and treat cells in the CometChip®. Each 6 mm well contains approximately 400 of the 30 micron nanopores. The nanopores are displayed in a defined pattern and depth which causes the captured test cells to reside in one plane. This feature, along with the highly regulated electrophoretic field in the CometAssay® ES prevents overlapping comets and allows the highest accuracy in image analysis.

CometAssay® Reagents
Made and qualified by Trevigen for this application

Made and performance tested at Trevigen, our Lysis Buffer and LMAgarose are made with the highest quality ingredients and tested to demonstrate optimal CometChip® performance.

CometAssay® Electrophoresis System (ES)
Standardized electrophoresis system designed by Trevigen

This uniquely configured electrophoresis system was designed to run either standard comet assay or CometChip®. The amount of running buffer is predetermined and the electrodes are positioned so that in combination an electric field is established that is consistent for each run. This consistency assures reproducibility – run-to-run; unit-to-unit, and lab-tolab. Also, the CometChips® are held in proper orientation in the electrophoretic field by a slide tray, which assures that all comets will have proper head-to-tail alignment for unhindered image analysis. Unlike other electrophoresis units on the market, The Trevigen CometAssay® ES was designed specifically and only for the comet assay.

Comet Analysis Software
The fastest available program for accurate comet scoring, designed by Trevigen
If an average of 208 arrayed comets is imaged per well, the 96 well CometChip® produces on average 20,000 comets per chip. With a capacity for three CometChips® per ES run, the output for just two runs per day is 120,000 comets. The Trevigen Comet Analysis Software can analyze in minutes what used to take days. In this example, 120,000 comets can be analyzed, the data exported and a report generated in under 20 minutes.

Learn More
CometChip® can dramatically improve lab productivity. To find out more about the CometChip® System, visit: https://www.trevigen.com/cat/1/56/0/CometChip/

About Trevigen
Trevigen was the first company to create products for the standardization of the comet assay and is the only company providing the unique CometChip® high throughput GenTox platform. Trevigen also offers contract research services, conducting full comet assays with image analysis and report documentation. For more information, visit www.trevigen.com or contact us at info@trevigen.com.