Press Release

Genospectra Introduces EXPRESS-si Delivery Reagent

The key to efficient and non-toxic delivery of siRNAs to difficult-to-transfect cell types

FREMONT, CA May 25, 2005—Genospectra, Inc., developer of innovative products and technologies for parallel quantitative biology (PQB), and the exclusive provider of QuantiGene®—quantitative gene expression profiling technology, announced the introduction of EXPRESS-si™ Delivery Reagent, a revolutionary new approach to the efficient delivery of siRNAs into even the most difficult-to-transfect cell types.

Genospectra’s new product addresses the key issue facing RNAi researchers today, since the success or failure of a gene silencing experiment depends on the efficient and non-toxic delivery of an siRNA to the cell. Lipid-based reagents are typically used to transfect siRNAs into immortalized cell lines, but tend to be inefficient to deliver siRNA to most primary cell types. For these important cell types, electroporation is often used, but this technique is costly, suffers from high cell mortality, and cannot be adapted to high-throughput formats.

EXPRESS-si Delivery Reagent is based on the novel “MPG” technology developed by Drs Frederic Heitz and Gilles Divita at “Centre de Recherches en Biochimie Macromoleculaire” at the CNRS in Montepellier-France, licensed exclusively to Genospectra. The mechanism of entry is unique, receptor-independent and avoids the endocytic pathway. This prevents the common problem of endosomal or lysosomal degradation of precious cargo. “The passive diffusion capability of MPG technology permits efficient and robust delivery of siRNAs into a variety of cell types, including primary, non-dividing and non-adherent suspension cells,” said Dr. Divita. “MPG peptides can also be designed to accommodate specific molecular cargoes including oligonucleotides and plasmids.”

“The efficient delivery of siRNAs in difficult-to-transfect cell types such as differentiated adipocytes, NHEK cells, or primary cells is the key to unraveling the complexities of cellular pathway function in important phenotypic assays and cell models,” said Gary McMaster, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, Genospectra. “This technology will enable scientists in pharma, biotech, and academia to enhance their understanding of target validation, gene function and signaling pathways.”

About Genospectra

Genospectra is a privately-held life science company focused on parallel quantitative biology (PQB) to develop novel cell-based assays and tools that enable the multiplex measurement of molecular events, such as intracellular pathway analysis, in a quantitative and scalable manner. Genospectra has grown rapidly on the merits of QuantiGene, its flagship product line powered by the proprietary bDNA technology for gene expression analysis in cell-based assays. Genospectra was founded in 2000 and is based in Fremont, CA. For further information, please visit www.genospectra.com.