GPS: Gene Positioning System™

We named our technology platform Gene Positioning System™ because it illustrates well what we do, by analogy to the Global Positioning System. Indeed, just like the GPS in cars and cell phones pinpoint a specific location, so can our system mark the exact cellular “address” of an individual gene or gene product.

The corner stone of the GPS toolbox is made up of unique panels of mouse whole body sections and multiple tissue arrays, which are comparable to the maps used by the geographical GPS instruments. These mouse tissue “roadmaps”, which we refer to as "Sufficient and Necessary Tissue Arrays™" (SANTA™), were specifically designed to ensure the broadest coverage of all anatomical structures and stages of development, while being mounted only on a few microscope slides. They are "sufficient and necessary" since they enable the collection of crucial information about gene/protein localization and expression patterns, forming the basis for rational functional annotation.

Currently, two SANTA™ panels are routinely included in our GPS platform for greater flexibility and range of applications:

	SANTA-4™, a 4-slide 6-developmental stage layout for higher throughput
	SANTA-10™, a 10-slide 6-developmental stage layout for in-depth analysis