Nanogen enters space

Nanogen, the US provider of molecular diagnostic products, has entered into a collaboration agreement with NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC). Under the agreement, Nanogen has provided one of its NanoChip molecular biology workstations to NASA in exchange for certain commercialisation rights to intellectual property. Assays developed by NASA scientists will use the Nanogen platform to validate protocols for specific Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and Short Tandem Repeat analyses related to NASA's requirements. Also, scientists will evaluate NanoChip technology for the potential use of certain biosensors for astrobiology and biomedical applications.

'The collaboration with Nanogen shows that we must explore new technologies to achieve NASA's core mission,' said John Hines, technology development manager, NASA Fundamental Biology Program.