Shimadzu to develop DNA sequencer with GenoMems IP

Shimadzu Biotech , the bio-IT arm of Japan's Shimadzu Corp, and Boston-based start-up GenoMems have signed a deal under which the two companies plan to develop and commercialise a fast DNA sequencer.

The sequencer will use a proprietary form of MEMS (micro electromechanical system) technology developed under a $US7 million research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research on which GenoMems holds worldwide licensing rights.

The system uses a glass plate 25cm long and 50cm wide on which ultrafine micro-capillaries are microfabricated. The capillaries are approximately 90 microns wide and 40 microns deep and it is within these capillaries that electrophoresis, or biomolecular separation, for DNA sequencing takes place.

Projected to operate at speeds at least 10 times faster than existing DNA sequencing machines, the new product will offer a throughput of 5 megabases (million bases) per day, Shimadzu said.

"We chose them because they have a very high level of skill and technology," said Tetsuo Ichikawa, chairman of Kyoto-based Shimadzu Biotech, in a telephone interview.

We expect to launch the new sequencer in the second quarter of 2003, said Ichikawa. The company predicted a price tag of around $US530,000 ($1000), and has set a sales target of 50 machines for the year ending March 2005.

"If we succeed with development of this instrument, we will have no competitors," said Ichikawa. "Other companies, like Agilent, are already doing microfabrication using a different type of technology but no one has anything like this."

The deal comes as Shimadzu Biotech completes its first year as a strategic global business unit of Shimadzu. Created to unite the strengths of the parent company and Kratos Analytical, a Shimadzu subsidiary, the unit achieved first-year sales of around $US42 million ($79 million) with a product line-up that included DNA sequencers and high-performance mass spectrographs.

Revenue is projected to continue climbing to hit $US167 million ($315 million) by 2004. By that time, the unit also expects cumulative R&D spending to have reached $US60 million ($113 million).

This year, the company plans to launch a fully automated chemical printer pre-processing unit for protein analysis and, in the third calendar quarter, release a quantitative analyser for protein analysis and high-efficiency chemical printer pre-processing unit for protein analysis. In the fourth quarter, Shimadzu is planning to establish a new protein analysis contract services center in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo.