CombiMatrix, Furuno launch stand-alone DNA microarray synthesizer

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, July 13 - Acacia Research Corp. said Thursday that its CombiMatrix group, working in partnership with Furuno Electric Co., Ltd. of Japan, has launched its new QuadroCAS CustomArray Synthesizer.

Jointly designed and developed by the two companies, this new instrument integrates CombiMatrix's proprietary electrochemical in situ oligonucleotide synthesis technology into a compact, stand-alone design, according to a company news release.

Manufactured by Furuno at their instrument production facility in Japan, the QuadroCAS Synthesizer combines reagent handling hardware with Furuno instrument control and signal processing electronics to deliver a full-featured, small footprint instrument for CustomArray production applications, CombiMatrix officials said.

The QuadroCAS has been tested to meet appropriate safety certification standards. The unit will bear the CE and TUV markings and is suitable for worldwide distribution.

The synthesizer will allow researchers to produce custom DNA microarrays to their specifications with complete control over the content, officials said.

The QuadroCAS Synthesizer fabricates CombiMatrix CustomArray microarrays that contain thousands of microelectrodes that are individually addressable using embedded logic circuitry on the microarray.

Placed in one of four fluidic chambers, the system software digitally directs the molecular assembly of oligonucleotides for each separate array, officials said.

During this process, thousands of different oligonucleotide probes can be synthesized simultaneously on four different individual arrays.

Furuno is a Hyogo, Japan, manufacturer of electronic equipment.

Acacia, based in Newport Beach, Calif., comprises two operating groups, Acacia Technologies group and CombiMatrix group. CombiMatrix develops technology to produce customizable arrays, which are semiconductor-based tools for use in identifying and determining the roles of genes, gene mutations and proteins.

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