News Releases

October 7, 2002
Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd.
DNA Chip Research Inc.

Development of High-sensitivity, Low-price Oligo DNA Chip
- Co-development by Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research Inc. -

Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. ("Hitachi Software," President: Hiroyuki Kanekiyo, headquartered in Yokohama) and DNA Chip Research Inc. (President: Kenichi Matsubara, headquartered in Yokohama) have jointly developed the "Human Oligo DNA Chip," a DNA chip embedded with oligonucleotides (chemically synthesized DNA called "Oligo") corresponding to 30,000 genes, which cover almost all human genes, to be marketed in early September. The newly developed "Oligo DNA Chip" technology is characterized by its high sensitivity and low price compared to the existing Oligo DNA Chip technology in the field of comprehensive gene analysis, for which a strong market demand exists. Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research Inc. will apply this new technology to all Oligo DNA Chip products to be introduced in the future, with a target of offering high-sensitivity, low-price DNA chips as a new "AceGene™" Oligo product line to researchers in and outside Japan. The currently marketed DNA chips (chips containing cDNAs isolated from living organisms) have been positioned as specializing in applications to long DNAs, such as the analysis of proteins, while the newly developed Oligo DNA Chip is to cover applications to short DNAs, such as gene diagnosis/genetic testing, etc.

Although the currently marketed Oligo DNA Chip has been used as an epoch-making tool to analyze gene expressions comprehensively, due to its very high price (example: 1 DNA chip containing 10,000-30,000 genes costs around JPY150,000-350,000), ordinary research institutes have not been able to afford it. Furthermore, because there are many problems with quality and it is difficult to analyze gene expressions precisely, the existing Oligo DNA Chip has not been widely used.

Therefore, Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research Inc. have attempted to cut costs by using "Oligos" instead of the conventional cDNA as gene fragments (probe) to be embedded in the DNA chip. cDNA requires the production process of isolation of RNA from living organisms, reverse transcription of cDNA, and construction of libraries, followed by a PCR process and embedding into a DNA chip. In this case, the construction of libraries and PCR process are especially expensive, resulting in high product prices. Furthermore, in the development of the Oligo DNA Chip, a DNA sequence database was constructed by utilizing IT technology and Oligos were designed more efficiently on computer while complete automation was planned. Consequently, a simplified system in which a massive amount of designed Oligos are chemically synthesized to be embedded in DNA chips could be adopted.

Because Hitachi Software succeeded in reducing costs substantially (by more than 50%) by employing this IT technology and an Oligo mass production system, a low price has been realized as initially targeted.

Moreover, DNA Chip Research Inc. has newly developed the original DNA chip coating technology (patent pending). This technology has helped to improve the quality of the DNA chip substantially by arraying Oligos on a DNA chip at high density and lengthening the Linker between the DNA chip and the Oligo. With the conventional coating, because oligonucleotides are immobilized at low density and the linker is short, gene expressions with a low signal are buried in noise. This new coating technology has enabled the detection of gene expressions with a low signal with at least a 5-fold greater sensitivity compared to the conventional technology.

As a result, due to the joint technological development by Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research Inc., commercialization of an Oligo DNA Chip with at least a 10-fold better price to performance ratio compared to the existing products has been realized.

Hitachi Software and DNA Chip Research Inc. plan to develop and market the mouse and rat oligo chips as the "AceGene™" product line within this year following this "Human Oligo DNA Chip (Human Oligo Chip 30K)." These products will also be provided at a low price.

Sales forecast of the DNA Chip products including the currently marketed cDNA chips (the yeast chip, the human chip, the rat liver chip and the rice chip) and the bacteria identification chip that already is an oligo-based chip, is JPY2 billion per annum, in 3 years.

Product Overview
Product name: AceGene™ Human Oligo Chip 30K
Standard price: JPY59,800 (consumption tax not included)