Corning quietly launched a human cancer gene array July 23, and has said it will launch its high-density human genome array by the end of the year.
“Corning is continuing to work on a 10,000-spot human array,” said Thomas Hinman, division vice president and general manager of Corning’s Microarray Technology Life Sciences. “It was always to follow a CMT human cancer gene array, which was launched July 23. We’re working hard on the technology and it’s looking like a public launch [for the human array] for the fourth quarter.”
The 150-year old fiber optics giant first announced its intention to launch a 10,000 gene human microarray last September, with an original launch scheduled for June. In January, the company initiated a $10 million collaboration with MIT’s Whitehead Institute to beta-test these arrays and develop novel applications for them. Since then, it signed content partnerships with Invitrogen and Incyte, and has signed a co-marketing agreement with BioDiscovery, a maker of array analysis software.
Meanwhile, the company’s microarray technology division culled engineering talent from its materials technology, biochemical and machine research areas to come up with an automated high-volume arraying process that prints cDNA arrays on proprietary glass using technology borrowed from its various divisions.
— KH