15 April 2002 - Eurogentec launches Schizosaccharomyces pombe MicroArray

Belgium, Liège - 15 April 2002

Eurogentec is pleased to announce the availability of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe MicroArray. This project was carried out in collaboration with an academic consortium coordinated by professor Anthony Wright, Södertörns University College and the Department of Biosciences, Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

Very recently, the genome sequence has been reported in Nature ( 21 February 2002). Genome annotation predicts a maximum of 4 940 protein-coding genes distributed between three chromosomes. Eurogentec anticipates making available S. pombe MicroArray to all researchers. The MicroArray contains PCR products for up to 99,5 % of annotated fission yeast genes. The MicroArray includes mitochondrial genes, many tag and marker genes. Preliminary experiments performed by Professor Anthony Wright show that more than 75 % of fission yeast transcripts are reliably detected and quantified.

"With Schizosaccharomyces pombe MicroArray Eurogentec has now ten MicroArrays available and this is the third yeast MicroArray we produced after Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, which are both very useful tools for the yeast community", stated Dr. Driss Talibi, Product Manager DNA MicroArray at Eurogentec.

The fission yeast becomes the sixth eukaryotic genome to be sequenced, following Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Arabidopsis thaliana and Human. The Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a single cell, free-living archiascomycete fungus sharing many biological and physiological features with cells of more complicated eukaryotes. This model organism has been extensively used for the study of cell cycle control, mitosis and meiosis, DNA repair and recombination.

About Eurogentec

Eurogentec was founded in 1985 as a spin-off of the University of Liège (Belgium). Its mission is to design and deliver reliable and innovative services and products for the Life-Science community. As a leading supplier for genomic and proteomic research, Eurogentec is able to offer its customers integrated solutions, whether they use DNA, antibodies, peptides or proteins as research tools. The company has subsidiaries in France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and a branch office in Switzerland. In 1999 Eurogentec acquired Oswel Research Products in Southampton. In August 2001, the company made another strategic step with the incorporation of the joint venture Nippon EGT in Japan. Eurogentec has realized a total turnover of EUR 21 million in 2000. Actually, the company employs 230 persons including 30 PhD's.