PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Orchid BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ORCH - news) today announced that it has been awarded a $4.8 million, three-year contract by the Office of Special Technology of the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop technology for microfluidic-enabled DNA synthesis for the manufacture of significant quantities of long oligonucleotides (oligos). The proposed highly innovative technology would enable very large quantities of oligos to be produced rapidly and cost effectively. Successful development of this new technology will allow Orchid to produce oligos at substantially reduced cost and time for genetic analyses, and to create completely new and novel applications.
Oligonucleotides are synthetic DNA molecules essential for many types of DNA analysis, such as genotyping, sequencing, expression analysis and diagnostics. Custom oligos must be produced for each specific application. The goal of this program is to further develop Orchid's proprietary microfluidic technologies for oligonucleotide manufacture and processing to produce long segments of synthetic DNA. The proposed technology features a micro device that can be integrated with electronic components to form subsystems within future bioassay systems for integrated DNA analysis. The fully developed technology is expected to enable Orchid to produce from short to up to 10,000 base oligonucleotides in significant quantities per day.
``This program builds on our strengths in microfluidics and microscale synthesis technology and nucleic acid chemistry,'' said Michael Boyce-Jacino, Ph.D., vice president of research and development and chief technology officer of Orchid. ``Together with novel nucleic acid chemistries we are developing, we expect that our novel manufacturing and processing approaches in this area will provide Orchid and our partners with a key competitive advantage for all our genotyping service and product offerings, from our ultra high throughput MegaSNPatron facility to our identity genomics businesses.''
The mission of DARPA is to develop imaginative, innovative and often high-risk research ideas offering a significant technological impact that go well beyond normal evolutionary developmental approaches; and, to pursue these ideas from the demonstration of technical feasibility through the development of prototype systems.
Orchid BioSciences, Inc. is a leading provider of products, services and technologies for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scoring and genetic diversity analyses. Orchid has developed SNP-IT(TM), its proprietary SNP analysis technology, and markets SNPstream® instruments and SNPware(TM) consumables that rapidly generate highly accurate, cost-effective SNP information. SNP-IT is usable in environments ranging from small-scale laboratories to large commercial facilities. The versatility of SNP-IT is enabling Orchid to partner with industry leaders to make SNP-IT-enabled products available on a wide variety of instrument platforms as part of Orchid's Platform Propagation(TM) strategy. Orchid also provides high throughput SNP scoring services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural and academic customers through its MegaSNPatron facilities, and identity genomics testing for forensics and paternity, as well as clinical quality genotyping, through its GeneScreen and Cellmark facilities. Orchid also provides content-rich SNP databases and SNP panels to its customers and collaborators. Through its GeneShield and Pharmaceutical Value Creation(TM) business, Orchid seeks to identify and commercialize medical applications of SNPs. More information on Orchid can be found at its web site orchid.com... |
