Boston Probes Inc. Licenses PNA Technology to Diazyme Laboratories.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

BEDFORD, Mass. and LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--July 30, 2001

Today, Boston Probes, Inc. announced that it has entered into a license and supply agreement with Diazyme Laboratories, a Division of General Atomics, for development of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) detection products that incorporate PNA technology. Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) is a unique synthetic molecule that hybridizes very tightly and in a sequence-specific manner to its DNA target. The terms of the license agreement allow Diazyme to develop and market worldwide two PNA-based specific SNP kits to test for human blood coagulation disorders. Diazyme will introduce Factor V Leiden and MTHFR C667T test kits at Clin Lab Expo 2001, the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Chemists (AACC), in Chicago, July 30-August 2, 2001.

Factor V Leiden is the most common hereditary blood coagulation disorder in the United States, present in 5% of the white Caucasian population and present in 1.2% of the Afro-American population. Factor V Leiden increases the risk of venous thrombosis 3-8 fold for heterozygous individuals (with one bad copy of the gene) and 30-140 fold for homozygous individuals (having two bad gene copies). The MTHFR C667T mutation is also linked to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and is associated with increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

"We are very pleased that Diazyme Laboratories has chosen to incorporate PNA technology into its products," says Jack Johansen, president and CEO of Boston Probes. "Due to its high specificity, and thus its ability to distinguish single base differences in DNA targets, PNA technology is uniquely suited for SNP detection. We look forward to working with Diazyme Laboratories and anticipate that the availability of high quality, practical and affordable PNA-based SNP diagnostic products will benefit genomic research and clinical diagnostic laboratories."

"We are excited about adding PNA-based diagnostic kits to our product series and look forward to a mutually beneficial business relationship with Boston Probes," says Dr. Chong Yuan, Managing Director of Diazyme Laboratories. " By combining the powerful PNA technology with our microtitre plate assay techniques, we are now able to design a highly accurate and very convenient assay format for SNP detection." Diazyme's test kits for Factor V Leiden and MTHFR C667T have been designed in an easy EIA-like format, which is widely accepted in today's research and clinic laboratories, and is also suitable for automation and high throughput analysis. The PNA-based SNP tests are highly accurate, fast, low cost, and require no special instrumentation, as compared to current genetic testing methods.

Diazyme Laboratories is a subsidiary of General Atomics headquartered in La Jolla, California. Diazyme Laboratories applies its proprietary Substrate-Trapping-Enzyme (STE) technology to develop uniform and low cost test kits for clinical and research use, focusing on the areas of small molecule (metabolites and drugs) detection and molecular diagnostics.

Boston Probes is a privately held company located in Bedford, Massachusetts. Boston Probes has, since 1996, been developing PNA probe technologies for use in research products and in human genetic diagnostics and infectious diseases.

Boston Probes is forming strategic partnerships and licensing its PNA technology allowing its partners to quickly exploit the advantages of PNA technology within their products and enabling them to achieve substantial competitive advantage in their respective strategic markets. The company commands an extensive PNA related intellectual property portfolio as derived from its own innovations as well as the in-licensing of PNA related inventions from DAKO A/S, PNA Diagnostics A/S and Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE "ABI").