FOSTER CITY, Calif.--PE GenScope, a part of PE Biosystems in the life-science division of Perkin-Elmer, announced last week that it has developed what it called the world's most comprehensive rat gene database. The database of 30,000 genes was compiled in three months using the company's proprietary GeneTag technology, which has been applied to global gene expression and discovery and is a means for generating gene sequence databases.
The company said the technology also provides information specific to the particular biological pathway, disease model, or drug response under investigation. Kidney and liver genes are the focus of the database. More than half of the genes represented are novel rat genes, of which approximately half have homologues in other species, the company said.