April 9, 1998. Copyright, 1998, Graphic News. All rights reserved

GENE CHIP COULD PROVIDE KEY TO AIDS SOLUTION
By Oliver Burkeman

LONDON, April 9, Graphic News: PEOPLE WITH AIDS could be  some of the first to benefit from revolutionary technology which  reveals information about an individualÕs genetic make-up Ð by  analysing a sample of their blood with a hand-held decoding  device.

AIDS is currently resistant to antiviral drugs because the human  immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Ð which causes the disease Ð is  capable of mutating in 20,000 different ways.

But the GeneChip, developed by California-based biotechnology  company Affymetrix, is set to provide a quick and inexpensive way  of detecting those mutations Ð a process which previously  involved a complex and costly series of test-tube analyses.  Customised drug cocktails could then be offered.

After a blood sample is taken from a patient, the DNA strands are  extracted and their double helixes are split into single helixes.  These are then brought into contact with the surface of the  GeneChip, which features thousands of Ôbonding sitesÕ offering  artificial partners for any mutated helixes which are inserted.  The strands from the patientÕs blood only bond with their  artificial partners on the chip, and those which do not encounter  partners are discarded Ð revealing which genetic mutations are  present.

The information on the GeneChip is then collected using a  GeneArray scanner, developed by international technology  corporation Hewlett-Packard, and analysed by computer software.

Affymetrix, the brainchild of biotechnology expert Alejandro  Zaffaroni, has been working on the GeneChip since 1992, and has  received multi-million dollar backing from pharmaceuticals giant  Glaxo-Wellcome and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and  Technology. Another firm, Nanogen, is developing a similar device  using different technology.

If the innovations continue to prove successful they could offer  hope for sufferers of other diseases Ð many, perhaps all, of  which are thought to have a genetic component Ð including,  scientists hope, many forms of cancer.

/ENDS  Sources: Affymetrix, Hewlett-Packard