ACADEMIA

KIRKLAND, WA -- Rosetta Biosoftware and Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced the introduction of the Rosetta Luminator system, a client-server bioinformatics system for storing and analyzing microarray data. The Rosetta Luminator system will be distributed exclusively by Agilent, which already has an exclusive arrangement with Rosetta Biosoftware to distribute the Rosetta Resolver(R) system targeted towards large pharmaceutical companies and major research facilities. The Rosetta Luminator system was developed to meet the needs of small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations, as well as academic laboratories and core facilities involved in gene expression research. The system is designed to grow with the needs of the gene expression researcher, and provides a seamless upgrade path to Rosetta Biosoftware's flagship enterprise gene expression data analysis product, the Rosetta Resolver system. Version 1.0 of the Rosetta Luminator system includes a subset of the features from the Rosetta Resolver system, which is designed for use by research organizations that have the need to analyze and manage large volumes of expression data in a variety of formats. The Rosetta Luminator system leverages Rosetta Biosoftware's advanced technology-specific error models to assign P-values and error bars to every single gene expression data point. This facilitates the identification of genes with significant present/absent calls or up/down regulation at a desired confidence level. The quality statistics calculated by these error models automatically take advantage of experimental replicates, and are used by every analysis feature of the system to produce optimal results. Like the Rosetta Resolver system, the Rosetta Luminator system has the integrated capability of analyzing ratio and intensity data in one system, negating the need for separate modules or products to analyze various data formats. The system also provides a centralized Oracle database to locally warehouse all microarray data and relevant experiment annotations. The Rosetta Luminator system's annotative LIMS capabilities enable customers to import and store information related to their gene expression experiments. In addition, the Rosetta Luminator system includes the following features: -- Plot, Table and Image Viewers, to visualize, analyze and compare single- and dual-channel data sets; -- Trend Analysis, to conduct time-course and treatment titration analyses, as well as identify and highlight biologically meaningful trends across multiple experiments; -- Cluster Analysis, using multiple algorithms and visualization tools, to identify relationships among collections of single- and dual-channel experiments or profiles; -- ROAST(R), the Rosetta Array Search Tool, to conduct statistically weighted expression profile similarity searches among genes and experiments; -- Ratio Builder, to statistically compare and identify differentially expressed genes from groups of single-channel, intensity expression profiles; -- Annotation Managers, to record pertinent information associated with experimental annotation; -- BioSets, to allow the creation of data collections and to store organized gene lists for future analyses, or to share with collaborators. "Rosetta Biosoftware's goal is to empower the gene expression research efforts of life science organizations worldwide," said Douglas E. Bassett, Jr., Ph.D., vice president and general manager of Rosetta Biosoftware. "To contribute to the accomplishment of this goal, we are introducing the Rosetta Luminator system. We view this new product as a catalyst for gene expression research. It will enable the research efforts of small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as many academic institutions, by serving as a powerful solution for gene expression analysis tailored in capacity and price to meet the needs of these researchers." "The Rosetta Luminator system will provide access to Agilent's gene expression solutions to a wider audience of life scientists," said Barney Saunders, vice president and general manager of BioResearch Solutions at Agilent Technologies. "We are pleased to be a able to offer a complete gene expression solution -- comprised of the Rosetta Luminator system, our DNA microarrays and associated labeling and hybridization reagents, automated microarray scanner and a microfluidic-based Bioanalyzer -- to small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic research institutions."