Tecan and BlueGnome have announced a joint development program to optimize the Tecan HS Pro™ series of automated hybridization stations and BlueGnome protocols for automated processing of BlueGnome's CytoChip™ diagnostic BAC microarrays.

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (arrayCGH) experiments have the potential to increase the resolution of clinical investigations into the genetic basis of diseases. However, the relatively complex experimental protocols require further optimization before they can be used for clinical applications, where quality, experimental repeatability, traceability and audit are all major requirements.

The collaboration between Tecan and BlueGnome aims to meet these challenges, as Nick Haan, CEO of BlueGnome, explained: “Current manual arrayCGH protocols are labor-intensive and can be sensitive to slight variations in timing, temperatures and concentrations. Automating the protocol with the Tecan HS Pro ensures consistently high quality results are obtained from every CytoChip.”

Ralph Beneke, product manager at Tecan, added: “The CytoChip has a number of exciting innovations that are fundamental to the clinical application of arrayCGH, including additional tiling of the clinically interesting regions and fully automated data analysis.”

The combined Tecan HS Pro, CytoChip platform is already in routine use at several clinical laboratories in the UK. BlueGnome has been appointed as agents for the Tecan HS Pro in the UK as part of the program.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global player in the Life Sciences supply industry specializing in the development, production, and distribution of advanced automation solutions enabling pharma and academic research, diagnostics, food and veterinary research as well as forensics. Through its REMP subsidiary (www.remp.com), Tecan is the leading supplier of compound and sample storage, management and logistics solutions. Tecan clients are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments and diagnostic laboratories. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2005, Tecan achieved sales of CHF 344.9 million (USD 275.9 Mio.; EUR 222.5 Mio.). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN / Reuters: TECZn.S / Valor: 1210019).

For further information please contact:

Tecan Switzerland AG
Seestrasse 103
CH-8708 Männedorf

T +41 44 922 81 11
F +41 44 922 81 12
www.tecan.com

About BlueGnome

BlueGnome (www.cambridgebluegnome.com) is a specialist developer of software, services and consumables for the identification and screening of biological markers in research, pharmaceutical and clinical applications. BlueGnome’s application, BlueFuse for Microarrays, provides a comprehensive software solution for the analysis of arrayCGH experiments and is widely used by clinical groups pioneering this approach in the UK, Europe and the US. BlueGnome’s CytoChip, a high quality BAC microarray, has been developed in collaboration with leading laboratories of the UK NHS to support the investigation of known genetic syndromes and screening of the genome at a 1MB resolution to be completed in a single, dyeswap experiment; for more information see www.cytochip.com.

For further information please contact:

BlueGnome Ltd
Mill Court, Great Shelford, Cambridge, CB2 5LD

T +44 1223 844441
F +44 1223 844445
www.cambridgebluegnome.com
info@cambridgebluegnome.com