Stratagene Acquires Rights to Predictive Genes for Bladder Cancer

Stratagene Corporation (La Jolla, CA, USA) has announced that it has obtained an exclusive option to evaluate and license a family of patents and patent applications controlled by Aros Applied Biotechnology (Aarhus, Denmark). Under the terms of the agreement, Stratagene will have the right to evaluate and exclusively license the rights to certain gene groups that have been shown to have predictive capabilities for bladder cancer. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very excited about this new agreement with Aros, a leader in gene analysis and PCR [polymerase chain reaction]-based testing,” said Joseph A. Sorge, M.D., president and CEO of Stratagene. "Exclusive access to this innovative intellectual property will enable us to continue to progress with our molecular diagnostics strategy. By using sets of genes that have predictive capabilities for bladder cancer, we believe that we will be able to internally develop diagnostic test kits, which should enable the detection of cancer at an earlier stage than is now possible and provide invaluable guidance to doctors as they make therapeutic decisions to treat cancers. We believe that this intellectual property, with its important implications for a variety of cancers, uniquely positions us to bring to market technology that will serve unmet needs within molecular diagnostics.”

Stratagene is a developer, marketer, and manufacturer of specialized diagnostic and life science research products. The company's products are used throughout the academic, industrial, and government research sectors in fields spanning molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, and toxicology. The diagnostic unit develops and manufactures products for urinalysis and high-quality automated instrument and reagent systems that use blood samples to test for more than 1,000 different allergies and autoimmune disorders. The company is pursuing opportunities to expand its product portfolio to include molecular diagnostic kits and instrumentation.

Aros is headed by Torben F. Orntoft, a co-founder and CEO of Aros Applied Biotechnology, who is also chief physician in the department of clinical biochemistry at Aarhus University Hospital and professor of molecular cancer diagnostics at the University of Aarhus. Prof. Orntoft specializes in translating molecular oncology diagnostics to array platforms.



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