A recent co-marketing agreement with Protogene brings Silicon Genetics a step closer to making its GeneSpring software a leading platform for gene expression analysis, according to John Pietrzyk, vice president of business development for Silicon Genetics.
Silicon Genetics, which launched GeneSpring in 1998, targets specific vertical markets such as gene expression, which Pietrzyk said is “where the spotlight is” right now.
The terms of the alliance with Protogene, in which GeneSpring will be bundled with Protogene’s oligonucleotide DNA arrays, are similar to bundling and co-marketing agreements that Silicon Genetics has established with other array vendors, including Clontech and Mergen. Pietrzyk said that other similar deals are pending.
Under the agreement, Protogene and Silicon Genetics will provide links to each other’s websites and will cooperate in marketing their respective products to microarray users.
The intent of the approach is to provide customers with a “one-stop solution” for arrays and software, Pietrzyk said.
Other companies such as Affymetrix and Genometrix currently supply software with their microarrays.
The Protogene alliance follows on the heels of an agreement with Gene Logic to bundle GeneSpring along with its GeneExpress database suite.
—BT