INDUSTRY

OAKLAND, CA -- DoubleTwist, Inc. today announced that GeneProt, Inc., a leading proteomics company operating the world's first large-scale proteomic discovery and production center, has licensed DoubleTwist's Prophecy(TM) suite for its proteomic research. GeneProt has also licensed the commercial version of the GeneCards(TM) database, which is exclusively distributed by DoubleTwist under a previously announced agreement with the Weizmann Institute of Science, developers of GeneCards. The Prophecy suite provides an extensively annotated source of human genomic DNA sequences and proprietary software for data interpretation and visualization. GeneCards is a searchable database that offers access to concise summaries of more than 20,000 human genes and their disease associations, as well as relevant links to other databases of highly characterized human genes. "GeneProt's commitment to DoubleTwist's products represents a strong endorsement of the value that our genomic data, technology and services offer proteomic research," said John Couch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DoubleTwist. "The Prophecy product not only contains highly annotated descriptions of human genes, but also displays more information about alternatively spliced forms of mRNAs and the proteins encoded by those molecules than is available from any other source, public or private," said Douglas Brutlag, DoubleTwist's Chief Scientist. "Because these alternatively spliced mRNAs encode novel proteins that are expressed differentially in various tissues and disease states, use of the Prophecy suite should enable GeneProt to identify significantly more proteins and potential drug targets from a larger number of tissues than by any other means." "The integration of advanced knowledge and technologies -- like these high-quality genomic information sources and software tools to optimally use them -- with our expertise in proteomics and bioinformatics should help us to achieve our goal of increasing the speed of discovery of human proteins for our pharmaceutical partners," said Cedric Loiret-Bernal, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, GeneProt. "The inclusion of DoubleTwist data in GeneProt's advanced analytical arsenal should benefit our proteomic and bioinformatic programs in a number of ways. These data and tools should help us continue to build our comprehensive library of in silico profiles using the different levels of genome, transcriptome and proteome information and associated annotation," said Lydie Bougueleret, Ph.D., Chief Bioinformatician, GeneProt. For more information visit www.doubletwist.com