HP and Affymetrix to Develop and Market DNA Chip Products.PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 1994-- Hewlett-Packard Company and Affymetrix Inc. today announced they have signed a joint product-development and marketing agreement. Under terms of the agreement, the companies will use HP's measurement and instrument capabilities and Affymetrix GeneChip (TM) technology to jointly develop and market a DNA-analysis system for use in certain non-clinical applications. Affymetrix will manufacture DNA chips, and HP will develop and manufacture instruments that read the chips. Financial and licensing terms were not disclosed. "The power of Affymetrix GeneChip technology and HP's leadership in the design, development and manufacture of instrument systems should allow us to develop systems that fully exploit recent advances in molecular and cellular biology cellular biology n. The study of the molecular or chemical interactions of biological phenomena. ," said Douglas K. Carnahan, HP vice president and general manager for the Measurement Systems Organization. "This should enable us to eventually provide leading-edge solutions to customers who require DNA analysis DNA analysis Any technique used to analyze genes and DNA. See Chromosome walking, DNA fingerprinting, Footprinting, In situ hybridization, Jeffries' probe, Jumping libraries, PCR, RFLP analysis, Southern blot hybridization. for pharmaceutical research and development and, potentially, to address healthcare applications." "This partnership is an important milestone in our strategy of creating a broad-based platform for genetic analysis," said David B. Singer, Affymetrix president and chief executive officer. "We are especially pleased to be working with a company of HP's caliber to ensure the rapid and widespread adoption of the next generation of DNA-analysis systems." GeneChip technology uses a combination of photolithographic techniques common in the semiconductor industry and chemical synthesis In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions in order to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. . Affymetrix can rapidly synthesize a very large number of DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. molecules on the surface of a tiny microchip. These chips enable detection and characterization of large amounts of genetic information. As the Human Genome The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is composed of 24 distinct pairs of chromosomes (22 autosomal + X + Y) with a total of approximately 3 billion DNA base pairs containing an estimated 20,000–25,000 genes. Project and related initiatives increase the understanding of the relationship between DNA sequences and disease, new technologies for rapid DNA analysis will be required. GeneChip technology is expected to offer a level of performance that will enable scientists to analyze complex genes thoroughly for large numbers of people. It is expected that the average time for analysis will drop from days to hours. In addition, the GeneChip technology has wide applications in infectious-disease, cancer and therapeutic management. Already a billion-dollar participant in the medical market and a market leader in the analytical instrument field, HP sees DNA analysis as an important approach where HP's expertise can help accelerate the growth in understanding human diseases. Affymetrix is developing and commercializing GeneChip (TM) systems to acquire, analyze, manage and use genetic information based on its proprietary DNA chip technology. These systems are being developed for broad fields, including biomedical research Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research or applied research conducted to aid the body of knowledge in the field of medicine. , clinical diagnosis and the emerging field of genomics. Affymetrix intends to pursue the clinical diagnostic and genomics applications with established diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies, respectively. Affymetrix is a majority-owned subsidiary majority-owned subsidiary A firm in which more than 50% of outstanding voting stock is owned by the parent company. of Affymax N.V. (Nasdaq: AFMXF). Located in Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif., Affymetrix has 65 employees. Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 98,400 employees and had revenue of $25 billion in its 1994 fiscal year. -0- GeneChip is the registered trademark of Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. ================================================================ DNA CHIP TECHNOLOGY The core area of expertise developed by Affymetrix for GeneChip (TM) DNA chip manufacturing is VLSIPS VLSIPS Very Large Scale Immobilized Polymer Synthesis (TM) (Very Large Scale Immobilized Polymer Synthesis) technology. This technology combines traditional micron-scale semiconductor-manufacturing techniques with advanced DNA synthesis DNA synthesis commonly refers to:
The VLSIPS process involves shining light through a computer-designed photolithographic mask onto the light-sensitive surface of a chip to activate specific areas of its surface. The chip is then immersed in a solution containing one of the four different nucleosides present in DNA. The nucleosides react only with the areas of the chip that have been light-activated. There is no reaction on areas that were shaded by the mask. By using a number of cycles and varying the mask design and the nucleoside nucleoside Any of a class of organic compounds, including structural subunits of nucleic acids. Each consists of a molecule of a five-carbon sugar (ribose in RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) and a nitrogen-containing base, either a purine or a pyrimidine. that is deposited, a large number of DNA strands, or probes, can be synthesized simultaneously. Since the nucleoside and mask used in each cycle are known, the composition or "sequence" of the probes at each position on the chip is known. Completed chips can contain over 1 million different DNA probes attached in an area that is less than 1.28 cm square. GeneChip systems will use the DNA chips to analyze many different samples more quickly than current DNA-analysis techniques can. The procedure consists of extracting nucleic acid nucleic acid, any of a group of organic substances found in the chromosomes of living cells and viruses that play a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis. from the sample to be analyzed, labeling it with a fluorescent tag, and fragmenting it into relatively small pieces. This labeled nucleic-acid sample is then placed on the DNA chip for a process called hybridization hybridization /hy·brid·iza·tion/ (hi?brid-i-za´shun) 1. crossbreeding; the act or process of producing hybrids. 2. molecular hybridization 3. . During this process, the DNA on the chip binds specifically to complementary DNA complementary DNA n. cDNA. in the sample. After the non-bound DNA is washed away, the chip is read rapidly with a laser-based scanner that identifies and records where the remaining sample is bound. Since the sequence of probe DNA at each position on the chip is known, with the use of sophisticated algorithms the sequence of any bound, fluorescently labeled DNA is determined by knowing its position. These sequences are converted to genetic information with a PC-based computer and proprietary software. -0- Note to Editors: GeneChip is the registered trademark of Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. VLSIPS is the registered trademark of Affymax N.V. of Palo Alto, Calif. CONTACT: Hewlett Packard
Doug Forsyth, 415/857-5603
Affymetrix
David Singer, 408/522-6011
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