Gentana GmbH has successfully completed a pilot study of its gene-mapping technology with Monsanto Company, based in St. Louis, Mo. Under the collaboration, Monsanto evaluated Gentana's iGentifier.

Open-profiling systems, such as Gentana's iGentifier™ technology, are helpful tools for mapping genes when gene sequence information is sparse.

"The life science industries are increasingly recognizing the importance of open gene expression profiling technologies for developing new products," Gentana's Chief Executive Officer Jürgen Bauer, Ph.D., said. "We are very pleased that Monsanto, as one of the world's leading agricultural biotechnology companies, evaluated our novel technology platform. The successful completion of this study is a cornerstone in Gentana's development toward becoming a leading provider for open gene expression profiling solutions."

"iGentifier™ is a unique technology platform for open gene expression profiling, combining the advantages of virtually all open expression profiling technologies that have been developed previously. Gentana's technology is the first cost-effective solution supporting comprehensive expression profiling studies of any number of samples. Compared to conventional technologies, iGentifier™ offers key advantages in terms of robustness, reliability and sensitivity. It can detect subtle changes in gene expression and allows even weakly expressed genes to be studied. The iGentifier™ platform ensures transcript analysis that exceeds the limits of microarrays. It is available as a customer in-house solution and as a full service.

The iGentifier™ platform is attractive to scientists in the agricultural, food, feed and pharmaceutical industries. It enables customers to identify genes and biochemical pathways relevant to, e.g., plant, animal and fungal productivity, pathogenesis, resistance, and the response to stress factors.

GENTANA specializes in the analysis of biological processes at the molecular level through monitoring the activity of all genes within an organism. The company develops functional genomics technologies and translates them into customer oriented, problem solving solutions. With the help of these powerful analytical methods companies throughout the Life Sciences industry can develop superior products while shortening their product development times. As a spin-out of Axaron Bioscience AG GENTANA builds upon assets and experience in the functional genomics field, gained through serving customers for over 6 years.