Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics last week introduced the Siemens Tissue Preparation Solution, which the company claims is the first fully automated method for isolating nucleic acids from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples.
DxNA of St. George, Utah, has been awarded US Patent No. 7,993,910, "Methods and apparatus for amplification of DNA using sonic energy."
William Bickmore and Danvern Ray Roberts are named as inventors on the patent.
The diagnostics firm is offering 5 million shares with a target of $35 million in total proceeds – roughly 41 percent of the $86.3 million target the company gave when it filed to go public a year ago and 52 percent of the adjusted $67 million target it set in November.
According to its recently amended preliminary prospectus for its initial public offering, the company hopes to submit a 510(k) pre-market notification to the FDA for an automated test by the fourth quarter of 2011, and to have such a test on the market in the first half of 2012.
Magna is spearheading a public-private consortium to develop a point-of-care molecular testing platform based on magnetic nanoparticles and PCR amplification. Other partners in the consortium include the Fraunhofer Institute and Siemens.
The study supports the idea of more widespread nucleic acid-based HIV diagnostic testing, which could be a boon for Gen-Probe and Novartis Diagnostics, which offer the only approved NAT for qualitative HIV diagnosis in the US.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have treated infants with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency using gene therapy in an early phase study.
In Nature this week: a genomic analysis of the snailfish Pseudoliparis swirei, ancient DNA analysis gives insight into the introduction of farming to England, and more.
