Corning Jumps Into DNA Chip Market
Tuesday September 12 5:13 PM ET
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) - Using a high-volume manufacturing process, Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW - news) is swooping into the business of making microarrays - DNA chips used to analyze thousands of genes at once.
The materials company said Tuesday that its new technology, expected to shift into high gear by early next year, will speed current production of microarrays at least 10-fold. That could accelerate genetic research and speed the discovery of new drugs.
The business of selling genetic information to biotechnology companies, government and academic laboratories is expected to grow from $250 million to $1 billion in the next five years, Corning said. The company said it expects to grab control of as much as half of the microarray market by then and perhaps overtake market leader Affymetrix, based in Santa Clara, Calif.
``Our goal as a company is to be No. 1 or No. 2 in that market,'' said Tom Hinman, general manager of Corning's microarray technologies unit. He said an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of microarrays are now made by pharmaceutical companies themselves.
Corning's process draws on some of the techniques it uses to create optical fiber, ceramic honeycombs inside an automobile's smog-busting catalytic converter and a micro-printing method of applying decorative patterns to consumer cookware.
``We recognized that several of our core competencies - including advanced materials, surface technologies, and optics - could be brought together to develop a new solution for DNA microarray production,'' said Pierce Baker, Corning senior vice president of life sciences.
The company said it can produce one microarray per minute, 10 to 20 times faster than manufacturing techniques in use today, and thousands of them instead of fewer than 500 on each production run.
Each of the glass slides, measuring about 3 inches by 1 inch, can carry some 10,000 genes.
Corning is the world's leading supplier of optical fiber - pure strands of glass used to deliver telephone calls, video and computer data in the form of rapid pulses of light. It invented optical fiber in the early 1970s.
The company also spent more than $3 billion and doubled its payroll to 32,000 late last year to solidify its presence in optical communications - making the components that amplify and redirect the laser light pulses. It had $4.7 billion in revenues last year.
Shares of Corning fell $7.50 to close at $287 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. |
