What is BoBs™ Assay?

BACs-on-Beads™ Assay (BoBs™) is designed for rapid detection of common aneuploidy of chromosome 13, 18, 21, X & Y as well as nine known microdeletion syndromes. This simple and robust assay offers the advantage of ease of handling, high throughput and requires small sample volume. Compared with QF-PCR, BoBs™ can detect 9 more microdeletion syndromes that might not be detected by karyotyping. Furthermore, the reporting time is greatly reduced when compared with karyotyping and Fetal DNA chip analysis. BoBs™ can give a more straightforward and clear cut result as compared with Fetal DNA chip analysis which may detect some unknown Copy Number Variations (CNVs) and will complicate the result. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong provides this new service.

Particularly for pregnant women with:

  1. Positive Down’s syndrome screening
  2. Ultrasound findings of increase Nuchal Translucency (NT) or fetal structural abnormalities
  3. Family history of genetic diseases covered by BoBs™