Agilent Technologies and French ExonHit Therapeutics to Collaborate

Companies Working to Optimize Microarray Technology for Splice Variant Analysis

02-Dec-2004

Agilent Technologies Inc. and ExonHit Therapeutics announced a research collaboration to combine Agilent's microarray platform and ExonHit's alternative RNA splicing technologies and expertise. This collaboration explores the development of a microarray-based solution that will enable scientists to properly monitor the Expression of splice variants.

Splice variants are variable sequences of RNA produced from the same gene in DNA, resulting in the creation of different proteins potentially affecting cellular regulation. Scientists developing therapeutics are increasingly interested in this emerging field as the expression of splice variants can provide novel targets, may indicate disease states, and can be altered by exposure to drugs and toxins.

Agilent and ExonHit are working together to optimize microarray design, reagent protocols and data analysis methods for splice variant studies. As a pioneer in alternative RNA splicing, ExonHit realized that the proper characterization of splice variant expression required dedicated profiling platforms. The company has received notice of the allowance of its patent, which broadly claims nucleic acid arrays that enable the detection of alternative RNA splicing events via either intron or exon and splice junction-specific probes. Agilent is a leader in the gene expression field, providing researchers highly flexible and sensitive printed microarrays.

Initial results from an experimental splicing array of G-protein coupled receptors, designed by ExonHit and produced by Agilent pursuant to the collaboration, were presented at Splicing 2004, an annual symposium on alternative RNA splicing, by Richard Einstein, vice president of R&D North America at ExonHit. The array detected multiple isoforms of several genes, and showed good reproducibility and specificity. The companies are expected to work with early test sites to generate additional experimental results.

"Our mutual goal is to better enable alternative RNA splicing analysis using microarray technologies," said Fran DiNuzzo, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Integrated Biology Solutions business unit. "ExonHit Therapeutics has developed an impressive process for the identification of splicing patterns that point to specific targets for therapeutic intervention. By collaborating, we can define methods that deliver more informative splice-variant expression analysis for drug research and development."

"We are pleased to collaborate with such an innovative leader in microarray products as Agilent, which has recognized the value in splice-related information and wants to facilitate this type of research," said Bruno Tocque, CEO of ExonHit Therapeutics. "We are confident that our collaboration will result in scientists being able to conduct cutting-edge genomic research and to study more thoroughly the gene families and signaling pathways important for their research. The effectiveness of Agilent's microarray platform, combined with ExonHit's pioneering alternative RNA splicing technology and strong intellectual property position, will ultimately provide an ideal expression-profiling solution for researchers worldwide."

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