TWTI released earnings a couple of days ago, and announced a collaboration with ACLA (which I think I will pout in the watchlist).
Message 16558011
>>MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MADISON, Wis., Oct 25, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- ACLARA BioSciences Inc. (Nasdaq: ACLA chart, msgs) and Third Wave Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTI chart, msgs) today announced that they will collaborate in the development and commercialization of multiplexed gene expression research products. These research products couple the high-multiplexing capabilities of ACLARA's eTag(TM) sequence-labeling technology with the unique performance and ease-of-use characteristics of Third Wave's Invader(R) platform.
The combination of the ACLARA and Third Wave technologies will enable customers to profile many genes simultaneously in a single reaction directly from crude cell lysates, without the need for sample prep or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The companies believe that this integration of complementary technologies will provide a level of throughput and multiplexing that is unprecedented among DNA and RNA detection or quantitation products.
Third Wave's Invader platform is already in use at laboratories worldwide for both research and clinical DNA and RNA analysis applications. The first collaboration multiplex products will detect and quantify the expression levels of many key, clinically relevant genes, including cytokine genes, which regulate inflammatory and immune response, and cytochrome P450 genes, which regulate drug metabolism. The products will have immediate applications in drug discovery and development research. Commercialization will begin immediately through an early access program. An aggressive rollout of these and subsequent products to both the pharmaceutical and general research markets will follow.
"After a thorough evaluation of the major gene expression platforms, ACLARA is very excited to be moving forward with Third Wave and its Invader platform," said Joseph Limber, president and chief executive officer of ACLARA BioSciences. "The Invader platform's ability to simultaneously profile many genes directly from crude cell lysates, without sample prep or thermocycling and with superior quantitation and specificity, is truly revolutionary."
The multiplexing capacity for Invader-eTag products is expected to increase rapidly through collaborative development, from 25-plex today to as many as several hundred-plex in the future. This high multiplexing ability provided by the eTag technology, when combined with the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and rapid, lower-cost development associated with the Invader platform, has the potential to address many high-throughput research applications.
"Third Wave is very excited to be working with ACLARA and to realize the great potential created by combining our Invader platform with ACLARA's eTag technology," said Lance Fors, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of Third Wave. "We believe that ACLARA's eTag chemistry is a breakthrough detection technology for highly multiplexed DNA and RNA analysis."
ACLARA's eTag technology, in combination with the exquisite specificity of the Invader platform, currently allows for the simultaneous labeling of 25 unique DNA or RNA sequences in the same reaction. The detection and quantification of each sequence is made through separation with standard capillary electrophoresis equipment. The companies will also explore the potential for combining their technologies for powerful, new genotyping applications. Third Wave will continue to separately offer its fluorescent-labeled Invader RNA Assay products for analyzing one to several gene expression profiles simultaneously.<<
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Cheers, Tuck |
