Virtek Vision Branches into Chip Readers, Comments on Drug Discovery

Virtek Vision Inc., which specializes in vision systems for construction and engineering industries, has launched a new product in an entirely new (for them) business area at PittCon: DNA microchip readers. Virtek's expertise in laser projection systems and scanners has served it well. It's ChipReader laser confocal imaging system reads microarray chips at speeds approaching ten times that of the nearest competitor. Virtek will distribute ChipReader via its own specialized biotech sales team based near Boston, Mass. The product will be marketed worldwide to pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial, hospital and university research labs.

"Our emphasis is high speed," explained Herman Deweerd, VP at Virtek's Bioimaging Division. "Right now the reader is the bottleneck in working with microarrays. We intend to address that bottleneck with a machine that can read as many as five dyes on each spot simultaneously. We read all five colors within those 2.7 minutes on an entire side. Other products require as much as 18 minutes to read just two dyes."

Here's how it works. An experimenter applies his/her assay to dots on the slide. One ingredient is a fluorescent dye. When the experiment is completed, each slide is read in the chip reader. Results are stored either in memory or on a writeable CD ROM disk. Users then apply the imaging software of their choice to analyze the results.

Applications and Opportunities
The target market of the ChipReader is, of course, drug discovery. Mr. Deweerd is confident that array readers will revolutionize not just drug discovery, but the way the pharmaceutical industry as a whole operates.

"Right now there are about 500 diseases that interest pharmaceutical companies," he explained. "When a complete human genome database becomes available, we'll be interested in between 10 and 20 thousand diseases. That's an enormous increase in the long-range future potential to develop new drugs."

But what about economics? We know, for example, that many pharmaceutical companies will not even consider developing anything that does not have blockbuster potential. Deweerd believes that business model will not last for much longer. "It now takes years and years, and hundreds of millions of compounds to whittle down to a reasonable candidate drug. If this timeframe - and the accompanying labor costs - can be reduced, now you don't need a blockbuster to ake money. As development costs shrink, drug companies will be able to make a decent return from a much smaller investment."

About ChipReader
ChipReader, a laser confocal system for imaging DNA microarrays, is unique in its ability to read as many as five different fluorescent dyes at a shot. Practically speaking, this means getting experimental results up to 10 times faster than previously possible.

The introduction of ChipReader is timely given the explosive growth now taking place in the use of DNA microarrays, also known as biochips, in genomics and proteomics. ChipReader's modular design provides researchers with great flexibility to use any microarray format, including standard microscope slides, stainless steel cartridges, and 3" x 4" (76 x 98 mm) glass plates. It can read glass, silicon, plastic and nylon substrates. On glass substrates, ChipReader can read arrays printed on either the top or the bottom of the slide, wet or dry, with or without a cover glass.

Since workspace in labs is typically at a premium, users will benefit from ChipReader's space-saving design. ChipReader's dimensions - just 11" in length, 9" in width, and 12" in height, provides a very small footprint. ChipReader's intuitive, icon-driven Windows NT software makes it easy to use, and it is Y2K compliant. The software also includes an automatic mode to facilitate integration with lab automation systems.

"With the introduction of ChipReader at PittCon, we now have the superior product in an emerging marketplace that is experiencing explosive demand," said Jim Crocker, Virtek's President and CEO. "We expect ChipReader to be a significant contributor to our future corporate growth."

Microarrays are revolutionizing the biotech industry. As many as 20,000 spots, comprised of DNA fragments representing the genetic codes of humans, plants, animals or disease-producing organisms, can be attached to the microarray substrate or "chip." Each one of these spots in a microarray represents a single experiment, so one chip is like a miniaturized research laboratory. A highly sensitive fluorescence laser-imaging device such as ChipReader is needed in order to extract the results of the thousands of experiments that take place on each chip.

For more information: Herman Deweerd, Virtek Vision Inc., 300 Wildwood Ave., Woburn, MA 01801. Tel: 781-933-3456. Fax: 781-933-3461.

By Angelo DePalma