Researchers at the life sciences company Genomic Health Inc., California, have chosen Tecan’s liquid handling workstations to automate the development of their multi-gene expression assay that predicts the risk of recurrence of cancer and the likelihood of chemotherapy benefit in a large portion of early-stage breast cancer patients.

Jay Snable, Director of Process Automation, explained: “We needed automated systems for our ongoing assay development and we chose Tecan for its highly flexible technology. Tecan provided the best solutions for handling all the different formats we need, from single tubes through to 384-well microplates, in a highly integrated system with quality controls all the way. We have developed a gene panel to quantify the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence, and we are currently looking at 761 genes in an initial screen to create a gene profile for an assay to test for risk of recurrence of another cancer type - this is where the Tecan technology will prove especially useful for the high throughput we need to achieve.”

Based on Tecan’s Freedom EVO® 200 and Genesis™ platforms, all assay steps after RNA extraction are automated, from RNA quantification and quality control, reverse transcription and quantitative PCR assay assembly. The workstations are also equipped with a PosID™ System for automated barcode scanning and identification to track individual samples through all the assay steps.

Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global supplier of solutions for the biopharma, forensic and diagnostic industries. The company is a leader in the development, production and distribution of advanced automation and detection solutions for the world’s leading life science laboratories. Through its REMP subsidiary (www.remp.com), Tecan is the premier supplier of large-scale automated laboratory storage and logistics systems. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has over 1100 employees, owns production, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2006, Tecan achieved sales of CHF 405.9 million (USD 324.7 million; EUR 258.6 million). Shares of the Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN/Reuters: TECZn.S/Valor: 1210019).

For further information please contact:

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