Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development

This new center was formed to commercialize a novel suite of fast, user-friendly and inexpensive DNA sequence analysis tools that could be fielded in a doctor’s office rather than requiring the services of an expensive reference laboratory, and which will reach markets including cancer testing, the diagnosis of inherited diseases, and rapid bioterrorism detection.

The central innovation involves a new, high-resolution twist on a very old technique for DNA sequence analysis: thermal denaturation profiles. A fluorescent dye, added before amplification via polymerase chain reaction (PCR), allows the melting transition of the PCR product to be continuously monitored without ever moving it from the same tube. Data processing allows even minute sequence changes to be readily identified through their effect on the melting profile.

• The Center’s first product has been licensed to a
  Utah firm, Idaho Technologies, Inc., which has commenced
  commercial sales.

• Idaho Technologies, Inc.