SALT LAKE CITY and RALEIGH, N.C., July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- ARUP Laboratories, a leading national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory, and SmartGene, Inc., a provider of novel bio-informatics services, today announced that ARUP will become the first clinical reference laboratory in North America to offer its customers the benefits of SmartGene's unique capabilities for analysis and interpretation of bacterial and fungal gene sequences.
Following an extensive evaluation of the technology, ARUP has subscribed to SmartGene's web-based services for the management, analysis and interpretation of genetic sequences. "ARUP is a widely recognized leader in diagnostic services and we are honored to have them as our first customer in North America," stated Stefan Emler, M.D., the founder of SmartGene and Chairman of SmartGene, Inc. "We were very excited to see the two posters featuring SmartGene's technology, which ARUP's scientists presented at this year's meeting of the American Society of Microbiology. We shall certainly benefit greatly from their expertise and guidance as we develop our services to meet the needs of the North American market."
SmartGene's technology provides an integrated suite of functionality for all steps in the laboratory following the creation of an electropherogram on a laboratory's sequencer of choice. Integration of proofreading, sequence alignment, interpretation, phylogenetic tree and report creation brings significant efficiencies to a laboratory's workflow. Sequence interpretation occurs against various private, curated reference databases and also against SmartGene's own reference databases, constructed and constantly updated from public data, using proprietary, profiled extraction algorithms to filter data from vast public repositories such as GenBank. SmartGene's technology facilitates the rapid and precise identification by sequencing of bacteria and fungi, some of which organisms do not grow quickly or well enough to support timely, accurate differential diagnosis using conventional microbiology techniques.
About ARUP Laboratories
ARUP Laboratories is a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and an enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. With more than 1,800 employees, ARUP offers in excess of 2,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to highly esoteric molecular and genetic assays, for patients throughout the country. Rather than competing with its clients for physician office business, ARUP chooses instead to support clients' existing test menus by offering highly complex and unique tests, with accompanying consultative support, to enhance their abilities to provide local and regional laboratory services. ARUP's clients include more than half of the nation's university teaching hospitals and children's hospitals, as well as multihospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing organizations, military and government facilities, and major clinics. In addition, ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology(TM). Further information on ARUP Laboratories can be obtained at www.aruplab.com.
About SmartGene, Inc.
SmartGene, Inc. is the North American subsidiary of SmartGene GmbH, a privately-held bio-informatics services company based in Zug, Switzerland. Through its Integrated Database Network System (IDNS(TM)) platform, SmartGene offers its customers a web-based suite of functionality to facilitate sequence-based molecular identification and typing for a variety of clinical, medical research and veterinary applications. SmartGene's integrated services increase the speed to definitive result for sequence-based diagnostics and improve the accuracy of sequence interpretation. Current modules from SmartGene include Bacteria, Fungi, HIV, HCV, MLST and Influenza. Future applications will address food and environmental testing of pathogens. To find out more, please visit www.idns-smartgene.com.
SmartGene, Inc.CONTACT: Ronald L. Weiss, M.D., M.B.A., President and Chief OperatingOfficer of ARUP, +1-801-584-5188; or David Ellis, President of SmartGene,Inc., +1-919-844-6145, or dellis@idns-smartgene.com
