Lynx and Solexa Jointly Acquire DNA Technology Assets

Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. and UK-based Solexa Ltd announced the joint acquisition from Swiss-based Manteia SA (Manteia) of the rights to proprietary technology assets for DNA colony generation.

The acquired technology assets feature a process to enable parallel amplification of millions of DNA fragments, each from a single DNA molecule, to create DNA colonies or "clusters." The clusters are dense collections of DNA molecules on a surface, which should enable fast and simplified preparation of the biological sample for analysis and allow reduced reagent consumption as a result of the highly parallel nature of the analysis.

For Lynx, the planar cluster technology, when fully developed, will replace its Megaclone technology, a process that transforms a sample containing millions of DNA molecules into one made up of millions of micro-beads coated with DNA.

Kevin Corcoran, Lynx's president and chief executive officer, noted, "Today, our Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing technology services assist researchers worldwide in a broad range of life sciences applications by providing a level of information that is not otherwise achievable. We believe the replacement of Megaclone micro-beads with DNA clusters should provide us with the opportunity to deliver our technology and associated instrumentation directly to our customers, allowing them to generate high quality data in their own facilities."

For Solexa, the DNA cluster technology will be combined with its novel base-at-a-time sequencing biochemistry to complement the systems already in development, based on single molecule arrays, for the comprehensive and economical analysis of individual genomes.

Commenting on the opportunities it creates, Nick McCooke, Solexa's chief executive officer, said, "This technology gives us the opportunity to introduce an earlier-launch product into our pipeline and broadens our technology base. Applications for sequencing are expanding rapidly as scientists wish to explore variation between individual genomes, both in academic research and in drug discovery and development."

Lynx and Solexa anticipate that there may be opportunities for additional collaborations with this technology as each company's development programs move forward.