July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Packard BioScience Company (Nasdaq: PBSC - news), a worldwide leader in the life science tools and nuclear industries, announced today the issuance of US Patents 6,079,283 and 6,083,762, which together include 44 claims providing broad and fundamental coverage encompassing biochip production by transfer of liquids through non-contact dispensing. These patents cover methods and devices for aspirating liquids and dispensing nanovolume droplets containing biomolecules such as DNA, proteins and cells. This non-contact droplet dispensing technology, also known as ``drop-on-demand'' dispensing, is analogous to ink-jetting technology and enables the inexpensive production of high-quality gene chips and protein chips.
Current methods for biochip production include either photo lithographic processes for synthesizing DNA on a chip, or robotic instruments to spot DNA samples on a glass surface by contacting the surface with an array of pins. The first method is limited to the synthesis of short strands of DNA, so-called oligonucleotides, while mechanical spotting systems have been limited to gene expression analysis of cDNA gene fragments on glass slides. Non-contact, drop-on-demand dispensing technology is expected to expand the applications of biochips by enabling accurate non-contact dispensing of droplets of any biological molecule on any chip substrate.
``The issuance of these patents is a key milestone for Packard's biochip program,'' Emery G. Olcott, president and CEO of Packard BioScience. ``These patents establish our proprietary position in the mass production of biochips for both genomics and proteomics applications. Indeed, unlike other biochip production techniques, our piezoelectric drop-on-demand technology enables us to manufacture chips using a variety of biomolecules including oligonucleotides, cDNA gene fragments and proteins. This makes our biochips suited for conducting both genomics applications, such as SNP detection and gene expression analysis, and proteomics applications such as antibody arrays.''
Mr. Olcott continued, ``The significance of this enabling biochip production technology has been recognized by corporate partners such as Motorola for DNA chip production, and ACLARA BioSciences, Inc. for lab-on-a-chip applications. Packard currently has collaborations with these companies to leverage our internal resources and to capitalize on the vast potential for our biochip production technology in a broad range of markets.''
Biochips containing microarrays of genetic information promise to be one of the most important research tools in the post-genome era. They are one of the very few platforms that can carry out the highly parallel analysis needed to exploit the explosive growth in genetic information resulting from the sequencing of the human genome. Initial applications will be in drug discovery, pharmacology and clinical research. Especially the emerging field of pharmacogenomics is expected to benefit from biochip analysis, eventually leading to mass diagnostic and personalized medicine applications. Other biochip applications will include forensics, toxicology and epidemiological research. |
