Organon Teknika First Company to Launch Automated System for Nucleic Acid Extraction.

TURNHOUT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 1998--Organon Teknika has developed a fully automated system for the extraction of nucleic acid from human body fluids. The system, NucliSens(R) Extractor, is a worldwide first and will be introduced at the Twelfth World Aids Conference in Geneva, Switzerland (June 28 - July 2, 1998).

Current routine nucleic acid amplification procedures are hampered by a lack of an efficiently automated nucleic acid extraction. The Extractor provides this revolutionary solution and will facilitate and economize nucleic acid amplification technology in the clinical laboratory. Nucleic acid amplification technology is based upon the billion-fold multiplication of genetic material. Thus amplified, genetic material (DNA or RNA) that is specific to a particular virus, e.g. the HIV or the cytomegalovirus, can be easily detected.

As compared to conventional methods used the NucliSens(R) Extractor offers marked advantages:

- The system will lower the cost per result by significantly

reducing the labor and consumable cost;

- The Extractor has a throughput capacity of approximately one

hundred nucleic acid extractions per day;

- The Extractor eliminates sample-to-sample carry-over and

environmental template contamination during nucleic acid extraction;

- By automating the extraction procedure the intra and inter run,

day to day, and inter lab result variability is minimized;

- One extraction technology is used for various sample types and

sample volumes allowing analysis for multiple applications.

- It complements the automated detection of the NucliSens(R)

nucleic acid diagnostic products.

Organon Teknika, headquartered in Turnhout, Belgium, and a business unit of Akzo Nobel, specializes in R & D, manufacturing and marketing of advanced systems and products for hospitals, laboratories and bloodbanks. The company has leading positions in the fields of neuromuscular block management during surgery, nucleic acid diagnostics, microbiology, immunodiagnostics and hemostasis. Organon Teknika is active in a large number of countries and has 2,500 employees.

Akzo Nobel, headquartered in Arnhem, the Netherlands, is a market-driven and technology-based company, serving customers throughout the world with healthcare products, coatings, chemicals and fibers. The company employs 70,000 people and has activities in more than 60 countries. In 1997 consolidated sales aggregated NLG 24.1 billion.

Additional information on the NucliSens(R) Extractor

Organon Teknika's Extractor is a fully automated system designed for the extraction of nucleic acid from a clinical sample. It is the first instrument in its category with complete contamination control during nucleic acid extraction, making it optimally attuned to the stringent demands of the routine nucleic acid diagnostic lab. In addition, the Extractor allows sample volumes up to 2 ml, making sample pooling for nucleic acid amplification testing a concrete possibility.

The Extractor employs Organon Teknika's proprietary silica-based extraction technology. This method utilizes the lysing and nuclease-inhibiting properties of the chaotropic agent guanidine thiocyanate (GuSCN) in combination with the nucleic acid binding properties of silica particles in the presence of this agent. This extraction method is proven to be one of the most reliable and effective methods to isolate nucleic acid from a variety of sample types and sample volumes. It is particularly suited for subsequent nucleic acid amplification because the extraction method yields ultra pure nucleic acid therewith overcoming the problem of inhibition factors.

The Extractor system is composed of a bench top instrument with a touch -screen user interface, a disposable cartridge and extraction reagents. The instrument has ten separate extraction stations to which the cartridge can be connected. Each station has its own reagent flow platform.

The system has a capacity of ten samples per run, enabling the laboratory technician to increase his or her output significantly compared to the available manual nucleic acid extraction methods. The Extractor enables a throughput of approximately one hundred extractions per day, with a processing time of less than 40 minutes per run. The Extractor system is specially designed to provide the laboratory technician with the flexibility to run a sample volume of 0.1 ml up to 2 ml.

Applications

The Extractor is validated to isolate nucleic acid from serum and plasma as input for the NucliSens(R) HIV-1 QT/QL ASSAYS. In addition CMV RNA is isolated from whole blood samples for the NucliSens. CMV pp67 assay. The Extractor may be used in general for other DNA/RNA isolation applications using NucliSens(R), PCR or other amplification systems. A wide variety of sample types can be used: blood-like substances, CSF, BALs, seminal plasma, urines, etc.

    CONTACT: Organon Teknika
              Floris van Hall, +31.411.654624
              fax [phone]
              e-mail [e-mail]
     URL:     http://www.akzonobel.com