title: NanoString, a novel digital color-coded barcode technology: current and future applications in molecular diagnostics.
abstract: Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sample is a gold mine of resources for molecular diagnosis and retrospective clinical studies. Although molecular technologies have expanded the range of mutations identified in FFPE samples, the applications of existing technologies are limited by the low nucleic acids yield and poor extraction quality. As a result, the routine clinical applications of molecular diagnosis using FFPE samples has been associated with many practical challenges. NanoString technologies utilize a novel digital color-coded barcode technology based on direct multiplexed measurement of gene expression and offer high levels of precision and sensitivity. Each color-coded barcode is attached to a single target-specific probe corresponding to a single gene which can be individually counted without amplification. Therefore, NanoString is especially useful for measuring gene expression in degraded clinical specimens. Areas covered: This article describes the applications of NanoString technologies in molecular diagnostics and challenges associated with its applications and the future development. Expert commentary: Although NanoString technology is still in the early stages of clinical use, it is expected that NanoString-based cancer expression panels would play more important roles in the future in classifying cancer patients and in predicting the response to therapy for better personal therapeutic care.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Hin-Fung
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Tsang
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Vivian Weiwen
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Su-Pin
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Ya-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: b Department of Pathology , Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hospital Authority, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Lawrence Po-Wah
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Sze-Chuen Cesar
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*
keywords: NanoString Technologies nCounter Analysis System; NanoString technologies; digital color-coded barcode technology; molecular barcodes