PBSC
Packard BioScience Announces Issuance of Key Biochip Production Patents
/FROM PR NEWSWIRE NEW YORK 800-776-8090/
TO BUSINESS, MEDICAL AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Packard BioScience Announces Issuance of Key Biochip Production Patents
MERIDEN, Conn., July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Packard BioScience Company
(Nasdaq: PBSC), 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.
Packard BioScience Company is a leading global developer, manufacturer and
marketer of instruments and related consumables and services for use in the
life sciences research and nuclear industries. The Company is primarily
focused on the rapidly growing areas of drug discovery, genomics and biochip
analysis and is continuing to develop integrated platforms based on a wide
range of technologies and instrumentation. These platforms are designed to
support the industrialization of drug discovery by bringing the benefits of
miniaturization, automation and ultra-high throughput analysis to these areas.
Packard's experience in working in more than 60 countries with market leading
customers has allowed the Company to establish a worldwide leadership position
in many of its primary product categories, with well-recognized brand names
and a reputation for high quality, reliable instruments.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward looking" statements which
involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty, including, without limitation,
the propsective statements regarding the expected expansion of biochip
applications and our ability to capitalize on such expansion. Many factors
could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements
including, without limitation, loss of market share from competition, our
ability to successfully introduce new products and platforms, our ability to
protect our intellectual property, not infringing on the intellectual property
rights of others, changes in the markets we serve and economic issues such as
interest rate and foreign exchange fluctuations. These and other risk factors
are discussed in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Contact: Mike Zebarth of Packard BioScience, 203-639-2340,
fax - 203-235-1347, mzebarth@packardbioscience.com; Investors - John
Capodanno, 212-696-4455, ext. 246, or Media - Hala Bashir, 212-696-4455,
ext. 356, both of Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
SOURCE Packard BioScience Company
/NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information on Packard BioScienceCompany,
please refer to the Web site at: packardbioscience.com.this release
is also available at noonanrusso.com./
/CONTACT: Mike Zebarth of Packard BioScience, 203-639-2340,fax - 203-235-1347,
mzebarth@packardbioscience.com; Investors - JohnCapodanno, 212-696-4455, ext.
246, or Media - Hala Bashir, 212-696-4455,ext. 356, both of Noonan/Russo
Communications, Inc./
/Web site: packardbioscience.com
Jul-11-2000 13:22 GMT
Symbols:
US;PBSC |
