London Genetics facilitates partnership between Oxford Gene Technology and Northwick Park Hospital

London, 8th October… London Genetics Limited, a commercial company that facilitates and manages partnerships between the healthcare industry and London centres of excellence in genetics and genomics-based medical research, announced today it had facilitated a successful partnership between Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) and North West Thames Regional Cytogenetics Laboratory at Northwick Park Hospital, and their academic partners, Imperial College London, for the validation testing of OGT’s CytoSure™ oligonucleotide array products prior to their launch.

OGT used London Genetics to find a suitable facility to test its two array CGH (aCGH) products. CytoSure Syndrome Plus is a 105,000 feature array covering the whole genome that includes probes designed to 85 constitutional syndromes. CytoSure ChrX array is a 44,000 feature array that provides comprehensive coverage of all relevant clinical areas across the X chromosome at high resolution.

Using its knowledge and insight of the genetics and genomics research capabilities around the capital, through its links with London’s top science and medical institutions, London Genetics identified the cytogenetics laboratory at Northwick Park Hospital as being ideally placed to carry out the validation.

Following the successful validation tests, the two products were launched at the 6th European Cytogenetics Association conference in Istanbul.

Dr Mike Evans, CEO of Oxford Gene Technology said: “We were delighted to work with Northwick Park Hospital to validate our CytoSure family of products. Going through London Genetics to arrange the testing was really straightforward. We are sure to work with them again.”

Nick Lench, CEO of London Genetics said: “We were pleased to have been able to play a role in supporting OGT in the validation of its products prior to launch. Our goal is to be the first point of contact for anyone who would like to commission genetic or genomic-based research in London.”

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Notes for editors
For more information contact:

London Genetics
Nick Lench, Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20-7594-3746
Email: n.lench@imperial.ac.uk

Harry Singh, Director of Operations
Tel: +44 (0)20-7594-1468
Email: h.singh@imperial.ac.uk

Oxford Gene Technology
Nicola Booton-Mander, Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 1865 856828
Email: products@ogt.co.uk 


Northbank Communications (for media enquiries)
Gemma Price, Holly Griffiths, Katja Stout
Tel: 020 7268 3002
Email: g.price@northbankcommunications.com 

About London Genetics

London Genetics is a commercial company, funded by the London Development Agency that facilitates and manages partnerships between the healthcare industry and London centres of excellence in genetics and genomics-based medical research. London Genetics provides access to an extensive range of facilities and resources through a consortium of seven of London’s top science and medical Institutions: Imperial College London; The Institute of Cancer Research; King’s College London; The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Queen Mary University of London; St George’s University of London; and University College London. More information on London Genetics is available at: www.londongenetics.co.uk 

About Oxford Gene Technology
Founded in 1995 by the pioneer of Southern Blotting, Professor Sir Edwin Southern, OGT operates out of Begbroke Business Park near Oxford, with excellent access to a growing network of life science companies

OGT offers a comprehensive custom microarray consultancy service, from experimental design through all stages to data analysis and interpretation. It has a strong proven track record in providing custom microarray service in a range of applications, and in May 2006 announced the launch of its first microarray product, an Escherichia coli K12 ChIP on chip, the first ChIP microarray product to be launched as part of OGT’s Prokaryotic Chip2 family. For further information on OGT visit http://www.ogt.co.uk/

About North West Thames Regional Cytogenetics Laboratory

The department is a large, long established and integrated facility offering comprehensive genetics services to a population of 3.6million. The department offers a full range of laboratory tests and consultations with clinical geneticists and specialist genetic counsellors, both within the department and at regional clinics. The department is committed to offering the most up to date service possible for patients and is therefore in the process of developing a microarray service. For further information, visit http://www.nwlh.nhs.uk/nwthamesgenetics/ClinicalGenetics