Qiagen N.V., the world's leading provider of innovative enabling technologies and products for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids and proteins, has obtained an exclusive license from Procognia Limited to market and sell Procognia's proprietary "on-chip" protein glycoanalysis technology.

According to the release, the company believes the new products based on Procognia's technology to be an excellent enhancement of its successfully launched Qproteome protein fractionation product line, which addresses a range of different applications in life science research, including drug development and clinical research. Procognia's "on-chip" glycoanalysis products consist of lectin chips and analytical software developed and manufactured by Procognia. These products will be combined with a selection of Qiagen's Qproteome product line to create novel, "guided fractionation" solutions which should address previously unmet needs in proteomics and systems biology. Qiagen believes that this novel protein glycoanalysis technology addresses a previously unmet need for the preparation and understanding of proteins in the rapidly emerging field of glycomics. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In January 2005, Qiagen entered into a new area of protein sample preparation with the launch of its Qproteome product line. This new offering integrates state-of-the-art technologies into the broadest portfolio of consumable products for the fractionation, enrichment and depletion of target protein classes.

The agreement significantly expands the leadership of the Qproteome line with exclusive access to Procognia's novel and proprietary "on-chip" glycoanalysis technology for glycosylated proteins. By combining this technology with its Qproteome product line, Qiagen offers a solution which for the first time enables the customer to quickly standardize and optimize their glycomic sample workflow with easy to use consumables, the release added.