Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:LYNX) today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded University of Delaware faculty members Drs. Blake Meyers and Pamela Green a research grant to utilize Lynx's Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS(TM)) small RNA profiling technology. The award was made by the USDA under the Cooperative State, Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) program entitled "Functional Genomics of Agriculturally Important Organisms," and this project will focus on small RNAs in rice.

This new service agreement builds on the success of researchers at both the University of Delaware and Lynx in a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation to develop the new MPSS(TM) application. MPSS analysis of small RNAs allows for the first time the comprehensive discovery and precise quantification of small RNAs (microRNAs (miRNAs) and small-interfering-RNAs (siRNAs)) produced in a given organism. These non-coding RNAs can silence genes through a variety of mechanisms including degradation of messenger RNAs, inhibition of translation, or methylation of genomic DNA and/or modification of histones. Recent advances in silencing RNA have illustrated important biological roles for siRNAs and miRNAs.

"This project, which uses the newly developed MPSS(TM) protocol, will be the first large scale attempt to identify all small RNA molecules expressed in rice. We will assess the diversity and abundance of these molecules under normal growth conditions and under abiotic and biotic stress. These data will be publicly available through our web-based interface for rice MPSS(TM) data," said Dr. Meyers. "This extensive set of small RNA data, along with the bioinformatics tools that we have developed for analysis and visualization, will help plant biologists understand small RNA regulation of the genome in an important crop species. Individual biologists will be able to examine the impact of small RNAs on their favorite genes of interest."

About University of Delaware

Located in Newark, Delaware, the University of Delaware was founded in 1743 and is a state-assisted institution of higher learning, with more than 16,000 undergraduates and nearly 3,000 graduate students. It is the major research university in Delaware. The Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI), a unit of the University of Delaware, is a statewide collaboration among universities, state government, and the private sector that houses faculty from diverse University of Delaware departments. It was founded to help establish Delaware as a center of excellence in biotechnology and the life sciences.

About Lynx

Lynx is focused on the development and application of novel genomic analysis solutions. By "novel," Lynx means next generation technology that will take the engagement of thought leaders before broader commercial acceptance can occur. Lynx's Massively Parallel Sequencing System (MPSS(TM)) consists of proprietary instrumentation, reagents and software that are used to analyze millions of DNA molecules in parallel, enabling genome structure characterization at an unprecedented level of resolution. As applied to gene expression analysis, MPSS(TM) provides comprehensive and quantitative digital information important to modern systems biology research in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agricultural industries.