Polyclone Biosciences Ltd. bagged the DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) certification for its laboratory located within the Dharward University. The certification will now allow the company to go in for Dept of Biotechnology and Dept. of Science and Technology funding to pursue its micro array research initiatives. The company is also in last stages of discussion with the State University of New York for writing a proposal for new micro array technology. By June this year, the company will launch its micro array products for cancer (breast and leukaemia) diagnostics.

In the area of bioinformatics, Polyclone's Eprime will now be marketed through German major Eppendorf Limited for which it has inked a pact.

Eprime is the first-of-its-kind in the real-time bioinformatics market. It is an application to design primers for qualitative PCR studies and was developed in Bangalore. The tool enables developing cost-effective methods to retrieve-the-process and analyse genomic data, extensively used in the research/diagnostic market.

The bioinformatics tool offers instant display results on-screen, that will be ready for exporting to local disk for further analysis. It supports not only effective designing of primers and probes for quantitative studies but also designs small interference oligos for gene expression studies.

The eprime will be offered with every real time PCR instrument sold by Eppendorf India globally, through its worldwide offices, with Polyclone tied up as the technology partner.

Each desktop version of eprime allows one license per five users, with the Eppendorf system. With this tie-up Polyclone Biosciences is looking at a minimum of about 50-100 licenses in the domestics market alone. Different pricing models are still being worked out with Eppendorf both for the domestic and global market.

According to conservative estimates the PCR industry is worth at around $4.5 billion (€3.4 billion), and out of this over $1 billion is accounted for real time PCR market alone. This market is growing rapidly at over 25 per cent CAGR owing to its application in various ranging from molecular diagnostics to gene expression profiling.

With just two other players and none of them providing end-to-end offering of 'SYBR Green, Molecular Beacon and TaqMan' along with regular PCR as modules, the eprime clearly has an edge over the other existing players in the market, stated Naveen Kulkarni, CEO, Polyclone Biosciences.

Eprime also provides the option to design an oligo to span a SNP. The objective of this application lied in developing a cost-effective method to retrieve the process and analyze genomic data, extensively used in the research/diagnostic market. Owing to its user-friendly attribute, this automated high-throughput, accurate, maintenance free and low cost software will mark its position in the market amongst our end users and technicians.

The tool supports not only effective designing of primers and probes for quantitative studies but also designs small interference oligos for gene expression studies. It has the advantage of a multiple user facility of a maximum of 5 where by it's also very easy to create users and manage them.

A well defined hierarchy with levels of security for using different features programmed within the eprime provides the flexibility to set variable parameters for the design process along with a redesign option for failed templates. Eprime has been smartly designed to upload sequences directly using accession numbers and the batch template submission supports Excel and Text files.