NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Affymetrix today said that it has expanded its license agreement with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics for its branched DNA (bDNA) technology.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm now has exclusive rights to develop and sell in situ QuantiGene ViewRNA products in the in vitro diagnostic market. The products are currently for research-use only. The license also provides Affy exclusive rights to alkaline phosphatase conjugated oligonucleotides and the use of them in bDNA methods for in situ detection using Fast Red substrates.
The bDNA technology, Affy said, provides "highly sensitive, multiplex analyses in both brightfield (CISH) and fluorescence (FISH) microscopy and options for automation."
Following the license expansion and other recent collaborations, Affy said that it plans to commercialize a platform of total solutions with an assay menu of chromogenic-based applications of the bDNA technology. In the past few months, Affy has announced deals with Massachusetts General Hospital, Leica Microsystems, and ScreenCell aimed at expanding its presence in the field.
Assays offered by Affy using bDNA technology include QuantiGene, QuantiGene Plex, and QuantiGene ViewRNA for biomarker discovery and validation applications.
In a statement, George Bers, vice president and general manager of the Gene Expression Business Unit-Panomics at Affymetrix, said the deal with Siemens provides his firm with "an important opportunity to enable clinical researchers and pathologists using advanced histo-staining techniques to combine the anatomical analysis with a molecular-level understanding."
He added, "These predictable, two-plex, highly sensitive and specific chromogenic assays help move the analysis to the next level by literally analyzing any expressed gene at the single transcript per single cell level."
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.