Hitachi Software Engineering Co. Ltd. and a Japanese venture DNA Chip Research Inc. have jointly developed DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) chips that carry about the same number of genes as the full human genome and have succeeded in making them cheaper than current DNA chips. The product is expected to be available in November, the companies said Tuesday.

DNA chips -- also known as DNA microarrays -- are devices used in diagnostics and fundamental biological research that carry fragments of DNA on a base, such as a piece of glass. They can allow researchers to monitor a complete set of genes on a single chip and therefore gain a better picture of the interactions among thousands of genes simultaneously. They can also enable researchers to find a gene involved in a disease by chemical reactions with samples taken from a patient's blood or tissue.

The new Human Oligo Chip 30K comes with a set of three chips that carries a total of 30,000 human genes, equivalent to the number in the full human genome, according to Hitachi Software's Website.

Using bioinformatics techniques, Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research computerized each company's gene arrangement database and designed the chips. This method simplified the process and reduced the cost usually required for making conventional DNA chips, which carry around the same amount of genes.

While the conventional DNA chips are priced around from

» posted by abennett

IDG News Service

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