Corning moves into DNA chip business

The potential of identifying new human genes and drugs to fight genetic
diseases took a leap forward this week with the announcement by Corning that it
is moving into the market of making microarrays, also known as "DNA
chips" that are used to analyze thousands of genes simultaneously.

Corning, a leader in the fiber optics cable market, is deploying a new
high-volume production technology that will speed current production of
microarrays by at least 10-fold. A microarray is a glass slide, measuring about
3 inches by 1 inch. Each slide can carry some 10,000 genes.

Market analysts forecast a huge demand for genetic information by
biotechnology companies, government and academic laboratories. Sales of such
data could swell from $250 million to $1 billion in the next five years. Corning
hopes to control as much as half of the microarray market, which is now led by
Affymetrix of Santa Clara.

"Our goal as a company is to be No. 1 or No. 2 in that market,'' said
Corning microarray technologies unit general manager Tom Hinman. Corning's
production process leverages the firm’s techniques used to create optical
fiber, ceramic honeycombs inside an automobile's smog-busting catalytic
converter and a micro-printing method of applying decorative patterns to
consumer cookware.

"We recognized that several of our core competencies–including
advanced materials, surface technologies, and optics–could be brought together
to develop a new solution for DNA microarray production,'' said Corning senior
vice president of life sciences Pierce Baker. Baker said Corning will be able to
produce one microarray per minute, 10 to 20 times faster than manufacturing
techniques in use today, and thousands of them instead of fewer than 500 on each
production run.