BioTrove Announces Completion of One Million Cell Assays With the Living Chip Technology.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BW HealthWire)--July 30, 2002

(This is an amended version of a press release issued earlier today, July 30, containing acknowledgement of technology funding by the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute for Standards and Technologies).

BioTrove, Inc. today announced completion of a study demonstrating the Living Chip(TM) technology for ultra high throughput screening of genetic diversity. The Living Chip-25K(TM) is a high-throughput screening tool that allows about 25,000 nanoliter-volume reactions to be initiated and monitored simultaneously. One operator can perform as many as one million nanoliter-volume assays per day using a minimum of automation.

In the validation experiment, a mutagenized Bacillus library was screened by processing over 40 pairs of nanoplates for discovery of mutant strains with high protease expression. Each nanoplate is a high-density array of 24,576 isolated reaction containers in the same footprint as a standard microplate and each reaction container holds 35 nanoliters of fluid. Cells from the library were loaded onto a nanoplate at a density such that there is on average one cell clone in each container. A second nanoplate is loaded with a fluorescently-labeled substrate and stacked onto the cell colony plate to initiate protease hydrolysis in each reaction container of the array in a simultaneous and massively parallel manner. The stacked plates are imaged and the high activity mutants are robotically cherry-picked for further analysis. Up to one million diversity assays can be performed by one scientist per day resulting in a tremendous increase in efficiency and productivity. "We are very pleased with the outcome of this study as a validation of our technology for diversity discovery", says Dr. Tom Morrison, Director of Biomolecular Discovery. Dr. Morrison added, "We plan to apply the technology to the discovery and optimization of high-value biomolecules such as antibodies, peptides and enzymes."

About BioTrove:

BioTrove Inc. is a privately held, biotechnology company focused on leveraging revolutionary micro- and nano-scale engineering solutions to overcome current bottlenecks in pharmaceutical drug discovery and biotechnology. BioTrove has two core nanofluidic platforms: the Living Chip(TM) and the Lab-on-a-Tape(TM). BioTrove offers integrated library storage and screening services based on the core technology as well as advanced instrumentation to partners.

Acknowledgement of ATP Funding: Development of the Living Chip technology has been funded in part by an award from the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The Advanced Technology Program, managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides cost-shared funding to industry for high-risk R&D projects with the potential to spark important, broad-based economic benefits for the United States. The awards are made on the basis of a rigorous peer-reviewed selection process. For more information, consult the ATP web site, www.atp.nist.gov.