MasPar Discloses Computing Role In TIGR's Revolutionary Gene Discovery Efforts.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 1995--MasPar Computer Corporation announced today the key role its scalable high performance computer played in the processing and analysis of the historic data published by The Institute For Genomic Research (TIGR) and Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGS) in Nature's Genome Directory, a special supplement to the September 28 issue of Nature.

The Genome Directory represents the first published description of at least half of all human genes, and is considered a landmark event in science. It is a guide to 88,000 different expressed sequence tags (ESTs), representing the data TIGR and HGS obtained and analyzed over the past two years. ESTs allow researchers to analyze the small percentage of the genome from which proteins are made. It is a scientific "shortcut" pioneered by TIGR that is greatly accelerating the gene identification in the three billion bases that make up the human genome. The knowledge gained is expected to accelerate the drug discovery process and aid research in disease prevention.

TIGR has invested heavily in an advanced computing environment to assist in further expediting its gene discovery process, and has been using the MasPar system for three years as the powerful engine to analyze enormous volumes of genome data.

"The MasPar system played an integral part of the processing and analysis of more than 160,000 sequences and 52 million base pairs that helped produce the historic genome data published in Nature," said Dr. Anthony Kerlavage, Director of TIGR's Department of Bioinformatics. ""TIGR is able to perform maximum sensitivity residue comparisons at a rate of 115 million per second using the MasPar system," Dr. Kerlavage said. "This highly accurate gene sequencing process allows us to use the most sensitive methods to manufacture high quality alignments.

"We look forward to a continued partnership with MasPar to further enhance the gene discovery efforts at TIGR," said Dr. Kerlavage.

MasPar and TIGR have a proven track record in gene discovery. MasPar systems were key in contributing to the identification of new DNA mismatch repair genes, including the discovery of a second colon cancer gene by TIGR, HGS, and Johns Hopkins University.

"We are delighted to have contributed to the data published in Nature by TIGR and HGS," said MasPar President and CEO John Harte. "MasPar is committed to providing the scientific community with high performance computer systems and database tools that offer unmatched speed and sensitivity on searches of the Human Genome. We offer our heartfelt congratulations to TIGR and HGS for the historic research they are performing, and are honored to have contributed to their successes," Harte added.

MasPar systems provide powerful parallel searching solutions to TIGR as well as SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, Pfizer, Japan National Cancer Center, Sugen and Systemix, Chiron, and RW Johnson PLC, to name a few.

The Institute For Genomic Research, based in Rockville, MD, is a not-for-profit scientific center devoted to accelerating the elucidation of the nature and function of human genes and ensuring that this basic knowledge is made available to the scientific community for the better understanding of human life, development of diagnostic and therapeutic products, and identification of genetic disease.

MasPar Computer Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, markets high performance scalable computers. MasPar has shipped over 240 revenue systems since introduction in January 1990. MasPar products are used extensively in industry for data-intensive applications ranging from decision support/data mining to genome analysis. -0- Note to Editors: The scientific paper referred to in this press release is part of a special supplement to the September 28, 1995 issue of Nature. That paper, written by scientists at The Institute For Genomic Research and Human Genome Sciences, Inc., represents the broadest study yet reported of human-gene expression. Its title is "Initial Assessment of Human Gene Diversity and Expression Patterns Based Upon 83 Million Nucleotides of cDNA Sequence." Further information about the supplement, called the Genome Directory, is available to the media from the publisher of Nature upon request.

CONTACT: MasPar Computer Corp.

Scott Humphrey, 408/736-3300

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