Genomics USA, Inc. (GENUSA) plans to become a leader in the design, development and sale of low cost microarray products to support the new field of personalized medicine with a specific focus on diagnostic tests which require sets of 100-300 functionally relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

The current understanding of the biology and genetics of complex disease suggests that such sets of 100-300 SNPs will provide valuable data that correlate genetic variability with the disease indication. However none of the existing technologies can address that need in a simple, high throughput, and cost-effective manner.

The Company will use its unique DNA fingerprinting capability based on its own micro array technology (patent pending) to detect DNA sequence change in a simple, accurate and inexpensive, but highly parallel fashion.

The Human Leukocyte Antigen locus, which is part of the Major Histocompatibility Complex, is ideally suited for this type of analysis because of the clinically validated association between HLA alleles and organ transplantation, and the growing market based on HLA variation in stem cell response, vaccination response, HIV, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and cancer.

The primary focus of the Company, therefore, over the next few years will be to develop and market (ultimately with a partner) an "HLA DNA Chip" and an "HLA Protein Chip" along with associated consumables and software. By focusing on HLA typing, the Company hopes to position itself as a leader in the diagnostic space with a pipeline of unique products for a variety of disease indications.

The HLA Genotyping Chip product development efforts have been funded by a Phase I SBIR grant for $500K (awarded in May 2004) and a Phase II grant application for $3 million for 3 years effective from July 2006.

For all products and markets, GENUSA products will be simpler to use and involve a much smaller capital equipment cost to the user than the current state-of-the art: the net effect being a material cost reduction of at least ½ and operational cost savings of 3-5 fold. This combination of improvements will allow, for the first time, clinical and population scale application of microarray technology in the areas of medical genetics, pharmacogenomics, epidemiology, forensics and biosecurity.