SUNNYVALE, Calif.--LJL BioSystems has created a genomics science group within the company to apply its high-throughput screening technologies to the genotyping of single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The company said it has shipped its Analyst system for use in SNP analysis to several genomics customers already, including the Whitehead Institute for Genome Research and Exelixis Pharmaceuticals. The company also recently entered a collaboration with the University of California at Los Angeles in which it will apply what it calls HEFP technology for genotyping to SNPs identified by the university.
Lev Leytes, chairman and CEO of LJL, said, "Initial feedback from our customers who use our high-throughput systems for genomics applications indicates that the requirements of the genomics market are very similar to the emerging requirements of the drug discovery market that LJL is already addressing." He said those customers require both high-throughput and low cost-per-data point, "just like our high-throughput screening customers."