Company Announcements

Oxford Gene Technologies entered into an exclusive licensing agreement in February with the Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo for 12 colorectal cancer tissue DNA methylation biomarkers.

In March, Procognia signed a binding letter of intent, granting Beijing Cy-Tech Biotech exclusive rights to sell the lectin array–based GlycoScope solution in the Greater China Region and to provide glycoanalytical services.

Under a March agreement, Lineagen will incorporate Affymetrix’s GeneChip technology into its FirstStepDX genetic evaluation service for developmental delay, intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. Lineagen also received exclusive rights to develop a chromosomal microarray assay.

Affymetrix received exclusive rights in March to distribute Almac Group’s Xcel array for research use in biomarker discovery. Built on the Affymetrix’s GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array platform, the Xcel array is optimized for RNA expression profiling from formalin fixed paraffin embedded samples.

In April, RayBiotech entered into a comarketing agreement with Innopsys.

In May, biomarker developer Intuitive Biosciences announced that it will acquire the animal health and research tool assets and businesses of Gentel Biosciences.

Product Introductions

NanoInk launched contract services in February for the development of live single-cell array assays.

Affymetrix began shipping in February its Axiom Exome Genotyping Arrays, which contain over 318,000 markers as well as Ancestry Informative Markers.

In March, Oxford Gene Technologies (OGT) released the CytoSure Haematological Cancer +SNP array, which offers the detection of both copy number variation and loss of heterozygosity on a single chip.

OGT introduced the CytoSure ISCA +SNP (4 x 180 k) array, which combines array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) probes with SNP content.

In April, OGT released a major update to its CytoSure Interpret software for aCGH analysis. The update allows sample data to be stored and analyzed in accordance to its relationship with other data.

Trianja Technologies launched the i-Slide three-dimensional platform for use in protein, membrane protein, glycan, cell and tissue, DNA microarray applications.

Phalanx Biotech introduced in March the OneArray miRNA v4 expression-profiling microarrays based on miRBase release 18.

Phalanx Biotech released the CytoOneArray, which is capable of detecting 264 clinically confirmed disease regions and 41 subtelomere regions.

RayBiotech announced in April a diagnostic core facility–partnering program for the US and Canada.