Nanogen receives funding for biodefense diagnostics Richard Daub , Reporter, North America 22 June 2007

Chips to go: Nanogen's NanoChip 400 can test multiple samples with multiple targets US firm Nanogen, a developer of nanotechnology diagnostic products, has received funding from several Canadian agencies to develop diagnostic tools that use its NanoChip technology to detect natural or potential bioterror threats to livestock, such as foot and mouth disease and avian influenza. Financial terms were not disclosed. The funding will go towards a project titled "Adaptation of Recently Developed DNA Microarrays to NanoChip Microarray Technology for Detection of Agroterrorism Agents," which has been approved by Defence Research and Development Canada. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington DC, estimates that the economic effects of FMD could be around $12bn, and it believes that AI could pose a similar threat. Nanogen's NanoChip 400 is a second-generation "automated multiplexing platform", which uses advanced microarray technology for pathogen sequence detection and genotyping applications. The company says that the chip can test multiple samples with multiple targets, and the cartridge can be reused until all the test sites have been completed. "Although the majority of our NanoChip instruments are used in basic research and human clinical diagnostics applications, we have always known that the platform's flexibility confers benefit in other markets, such as veterinary diagnostics and the monitoring of bioterror threats," said Nanogen president and chief operating officer David Ludvigson. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the National Center for Foreign Animal Diseases in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were among the agencies that provided funding. Nanogen is based in San Diego, California, and trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "NGEN".