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Wendy Lai
ParAllele BioScience
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ParAllele Obtains Additional US Patent

South San Francisco, CA, March 21st, 2005 - ParAllele Bioscience, Inc., a leader in the development and application of high throughput assays for genetic analysis, announced the issuance by the U.S. Patent Office of a key patent (6,858,412) covering its Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) technology. The patent is owned by Stanford University and is exclusively licensed to ParAllele.

The patent protects detection of genetic sequences by formation circularized probes that are subsequently linearized and amplified for detection. An extremely high level of multiplexing is achieved by labeling each probe with a unique molecular tag that may be read by hybridization to a microarray, or other readout platform.

"The issued claims broaden protection of our fundamental MIP technology used in our MegAllele genotyping system," said Tom Willis, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and a founder of ParAllele "The beauty of the MIP technology is its tremendous flexibility. By the use of a microarry based readout, it can be scaled to accommodate extremely large genotyping projects, while maintaining high levels of sensitivity and selectivity. In the near future, the MIP technology may also be used to measure other genetic and epigenetic phenomena, such as allele quantitation, loss of heterozygosity, genomic copy number changes, and DNA methylation, all of which are being intensely studied as potential biomarkers for key human diseases, particularly cancer."

"We are fortunate to have Dr Willis and four of the other inventors on this patent actively involved in its continued development and commercialization at ParAllele," added Dr. Nick Naclerio, President and Chief Executive Officer of ParAllele. " Recognition of the originality of these inventions and their protection will assist us in promoting our MegAllele platform as an industry standard."

About ParAllele Bioscience

ParAllele BioScience, Inc. is accelerating healthcare breakthroughs by providing comprehensive genetic discovery solutions to the life science research, pharmaceutical and diagnostic sectors. The company's products and services utilize a multiplexed approach that leverages novel biochemical processes rather than complex instrumentation to discover and analyze minute variations in the human genome. The understanding of how subtle genetic variations contribute to disease risk, prognosis and drug response will lead to new and more effective drugs, predictive diagnosis, and the ability to better tailor therapies to individual patients.