By Richard Acello
Small Times Correspondent
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 5, 2001 — A Boston University law professor, addressing a microtechnology conference here last week, displayed a series of mock magazine covers, including ones announcing the discovery of genes for disposition to crime (“Bad Boy”), homosexuality, even infidelity.
“That one seems to be associated with the Y chromosome,” quipped George Annas at the IBC USA
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| Illumina’s BeadArray technology permits large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. Efforts to understand genetic variation and function center around three major analytical methods: SNP genotyping, gene expression profiling and proteomics. |
While the jury may still be out on the infidelity gene, researchers regaled a crowd of more than 600 with the latest advances in chip-based microtechnology, including protein microarrays.
The Human Genome Project has opened up another race to assign functions to about 100,000 proteins produced by the human body. As science discovers that disease is a function of protein underproduction or other misbehavior, companies such as Chips to Hits presenter San Diego-based Illumina Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN) are looking to develop instruments that measure genetic variation to understand the correlation between mutations in individual genetic makeup to devise new treatments for diseases.
“You start with the human genome and the end result would be personalized medicine,” said Bill Craumer, director of marketing communications for Illumina. “(Science would be able to) look at your genotype, prescribe personalized medicine and the proper dosage, since there’s as much as a 100-fold difference in the response of medicines from patient to patient. But there are trillions of experiments to get from the genome to personalized medicine,” Craumer said. “That’s the place we’re all playing in now.”
Chips to Hits presenter Dr. David Walt, a chemistry professor at Tufts University, invented Illumina’s BeadArray technology. It permits analysis of genetic variation and function through so-called SNP genotyping, a method of determining variation in genetic sequences; gene expression profiling at the RNA level, showing which genes are active in a particular group of cells or group of cells; and proteomics, which holds the key for determining whether a protein is present and how it interacts with others.
BeadArray technology causes microscopic beads to reside in fiber optic bundles about 1.2 mm wide, each containing 50,000 fiber strands, measuring 2.9 microns in diameter. The beads that reside within measure 3.1 microns. Each bead holds a different molecule or DNA sequence. The bundle is then dipped into a test DNA sample and a laser detects which beads reacted with the sample.
Walt said he and his colleagues had recently completed scanning 80 percent, or the top 20 sequences, of the cystic fibrosis gene using the BeadArray technology.
In the second quarter, Illumina initiated its SNP genotyping service by entering into an agreement with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, on the way to posting a three-month loss of $5.9 million on $470,000 in revenue, and a loss of $10.8 million on about $1 million in revenue for the six-month period.
Friday, Illumina closed up $1.18, or more than 11 percent, to $11.28. Volume was 215,000 shares, or four times average.
Though genomics has given it sex appeal, Illumina’s BeadArray technology can also be used in chemical quality control, and in January the company signed a research collaboration agreement with Chevron USA to develop a BeadArray application designed to detect leaks and gasoline grades in the petroleum industry.
The Motley Fool recently ran a Q&A with “one of the heavy hitters in the biotech venture capital game,” in which Bryan Roberts of Venrock Associates described Illumina and Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. as one of a few “10 to 20X” return companies.
It’s the kind of buzz that has proteomics being touted as the “it” technology on Edgar Online, a trap for those with short memories, warns John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter, based in Berkeley, Calif.
“Basically, biotechs are drug developers,” McCamant said. “But with the genomics buzz, now you have ‘service’ companies to help the biotechs. It’s a classic picks and shovels strategy; let’s not pan for the gold, we’ll sell to the gold miners. It sold like hotcakes last year,” the editor explained, “but when you make a lot promises, you better be able to deliver, like their brethren in the dotcoms.”
Biotechs seemingly take a larger risk, but eventually they have products to sell, McCamant added. “The problem with the business models of the service companies is sustainability,” he said.
About Illumina, McCamant said he’s been impressed with the caliber of recent executive and board appointments, including Abgenix Inc. chief executive Scott Greer and likes the company’s cash position with more than $100 million in the bank. “They’re well capitalized and that allows them to weather a storm,” McCamant said.