ENGINEERING

REDWOOD CITY, CA -- Silicon Genetics and Optimal Design, Sprl., announced today a distribution agreement under which Silicon Genetics will market on a worldwide basis the new clustering algorithm, ArrayMiner(TM), from Optimal Design for use in conjunction with its gene expression analysis desktop application, GeneSpring(TM). ArrayMiner is designed to address the complex problem of clustering gene expression data. Such clustering allows individual genes to be grouped together based on the similarity of their expression profiles. Genes so grouped are implicated as being closely associated biologically. This may mean having the same regulatory control elements or being part of the same pathway, among other possibilities. ArrayMiner uses genetic algorithms, a modern optimization technique inspired by evolution of species in nature, resulting in a sophisticated optimization process to group the genes appropriately. Silicon Genetics' flagship product, GeneSpring, is a leading desktop solution for conducting comprehensive microarray-based gene expression analyses. Using GeneSpring, researchers can go from analyzing single gene/single experiments to whole genomes and classes of experiments involving thousands of genes and multiple parameters such as time, strains, phenotypes, tissue types, disease state, and developmental stage. Users can export the results of analyses to external application programs or databases, including the web-based GeNet(TM), for storing, sharing and comparing results with other colleagues. Andrew Conway, president and CEO of Silicon Genetics, said, "We are delighted to have Optimal Design's algorithms available from within GeneSpring. GeneSpring provides many useful algorithms and a flexible external program interface through which users can invoke other algorithms such as ArrayMiner. The user can then use the visualization, cross-referencing and archiving facilities of the Silicon Genetics range of products on the results." "Silicon Genetics is a leading actor in gene expression analysis software and their GeneSpring(TM) software is one of the best and most respected in the life sciences industry," said Emanuel Falkenauer, president and CEO of Optimal Design. "By linking ArrayMiner with GeneSpring, this collaboration will enable Optimal Design to bring our high-performance clustering technology to a wide audience of researchers, enabling them to analyze their data with unprecedented reliability and ease, which will improve the quality and efficiency of their research." Silicon Genetics will offer ArrayMiner from its web-site. More information can be found at www.sigenetics.com/Products/GeneSpring/extprog.html where a time-limited demonstration copy ArrayMiner can be obtained for evaluation. The software is available under a renewable yearly license. For further information visit www.sigenetics.com