Method Developed by Daphne Preuss at the University of Chicago and Licensed to Chromatin Enables Rapid, Broad Application of Technology

Chromatin, Inc., announced today that the current issue of Nature Methods published an article describing findings by Daphne Preuss, Ph.D., the company’s co-founder, to extend technology for rapidly identifying centromeres in a wide range of plants.

“These findings are significant because it demonstrates that the methods originally used to identify the centromere region in Arabidopsis are fast and flexible,” said Anthony J. Cavalieri, Ph.D. Cavalieri, formerly vice president in charge of trait and technology development at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont company, now serves on Chromatin’s Board of Directors. “This news takes the technology beyond the realm of academia and has big implications for commercial applications. What once took years can now be accomplished in a small fraction of the time.”

The Nature Methods article describes a whole-genome fractionation technique that can identify centromeric DNA in genomes, and suggests these techniques could be extended to crops and mammals. This technology is licensed exclusively to Chromatin by the University of Chicago and significantly augments the company’s portfolio of technologies for the assembly and development of mini-chromosomes.

The Nature Methods article, jointly authored by Song Luo, Ph.D., Anne E Hall, Ph.D., Sarah E Hall, Ph.D., and Preuss appears in the Oct., 2004 issue.

Chromatin, Inc., develops and markets novel proprietary technology that enables entire chromosomes to be designed and incorporated into plant cells. These engineered chromosomes make it possible for the first time to simultaneously introduce multiple genes into a plant cell while maintaining precise control of gene expression. Chromatin is employing these new genetic tools to design and market products that confer commercially valuable traits in plants, including improved nutritional and health characteristics, and can be used for industrial, agricultural and pharmaceutical product development.