Lumera Announces Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Capitalize on Growing Commercial Nano-Based Biochip Market
BOTHELL, Wash., Jan. 25 -- Lumera Corp. announced it has acquired the exclusive rights to Helix Biopharma's (HBP.TO) Heterodimer Protein Technology (HPT). The technology moves Lumera closer to launching a unique product set aimed to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar proteomic array market.
"When combined with Lumera's existing NanoCapture(TM) Array (NCA) technology, the HPT surface chemistry allows us to bring a new level of value to researchers and scientists concerned with protein research," said Lumera Chief Executive Officer Tom Mino. "The acquisition of this technology showcases Lumera's core competency of bringing important intellectual property to the commercial marketplace, and in this instance, could revolutionize the biochip industry by making protein arrays a reality."
The combination of the Helix HPT technology and Lumera's proprietary nanosurface modification chemistry will, for the first time, allow researchers to consistently take existing DNA arrays to produce protein arrays that accurately mimic the native living cell environment of the body.
This capability could have a significant impact on the diagnostic capabilities of researchers. By enabling researchers to evaluate, with more clarity and accuracy, the impact of various proteins on living cells there may be significant time and cost improvements to many important elements of commercial research including drug screening and toxicology testing.
"We can now produce and capture proteins on a silicon chip surface while keeping proteins fully functional," said Lumera Chief Technology Officer Robert Petcavich. "Combining HPT selective capture chemistry with our chip manufacturing and surface chemistries provides a biologically compatible surface perfectly suited for printing DNA or proteins. Already, we have produced prototype NCA's and carried out enzymatic, binding and proteomic studies with outstanding results."
Lumera will target drug screening, toxicity, protein-protein interaction pathways and selected diagnostic applications. Lumera plans to begin shipping product based on the technology in 2005.
Microvision owns 5.5 million shares of Lumera.
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