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Lyonnaise des Eaux and bioMérieux Announce World's First in the Water Industry - GeneChip® Array Technology to Improve Drinking Water Quality Control
The GeneChip array which will be applied in this joint R&D partnership program was originally developed by Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFX). The first commercial applications of the chip were in the biological research fields in 1996. The GeneChip technology is a multidisciplinary system that combines microbiology, photolithography, chemistry, image analysis and bioinformatics. bioMérieux established a collaboration with Affymetrix, in order to develop new applications for the GeneChip array technology in the fields of bacterial identification and antibiotic resistance, virology, food and cosmetic testing.
Lyonnaise des Eaux and bioMérieux, with a joint scientific team based in France, will invest 8.5 million euros (55 million FRF) in a 5-year R&D partnership program to develop the specific DNA chip. Affymetrix will manufacture the GeneChip arrays for the partnership. Once this DNA chip technology is developed, Lyonnaise des Eaux will introduce the new technology into its worldwide facilities.
Commenting on the announcement, Gérard Payen, Executive Vice President, Lyonnaise des Eaux Group, said, "Today's launch of our R&D partnership program with bioMérieux highlights our commitment to the development of a high-tech solution to improve water quality control technology which will benefit our customers by increasing their consumers' safety. It underlines our ongoing effort to supply our customer with the best quality water and begins a new era in water quality control." Alain Mérieux, Chairman, bioMérieux, added, "The marriage of our respective expertise in water and medical research will enable the development of a new application of the DNA chip which will touch the needs of the general public."
The Lyonnaise des Eaux and bioMérieux GeneChip array applied to water quality control will offer three main advantages:
As seen in medical applications, the DNA chip offers a very accurate screening technology. Applied to water quality controls, it will screen for the presence of microorganisms in the water by matching genetic fingerprints. The DNA chip, compared with existing technologies, allows a wider variety of specific tests to be carried out to determine the quality of the water and will provide the consumers with extra safety. With the use of molecular biology protocols, the GeneChip array will permit the detection of lower concentrations of microorganisms in the water and the accurate identification of many types of water contaminants.
Time Saving Technology
The Lyonnaise des Eaux and bioMérieux DNA chip will dramatically cut down on test time (currently 48 hours on average) to just 4 hours. The time saving factor offers 2 major advantages:
With bioMérieux's expertise and know-how in molecular biology and DNA probes, Affymetrix's GeneChip technology will enable Lyonnaise des Eaux to measure the presence of dozens of microorganisms in one test. With existing technologies a specific water test is required per microorganism researched, and the standard water microbiology test requires screening for 24 parameters or microorganisms. Currently, the total cost for a regular test amounts to 3,075 euros (20,000 FRF) and is expected to be ten times cheaper with the DNA chip technology.
The DNA Chip: a Big Step Forward in Technology
The GeneChip technology enables the production of a "biochip" designed to identify fluorescent-labeled DNA or RNA fragments through their hybridization to oligonucleotide probes, which are short DNA sequences. The probes are synthesized on a miniaturized glass substrate, measuring approximately 1 cm2, on which hybridization occurs. Each hybridization surface may contain a very large number of unique oligonucleotide probes (up to 400,000), permitting several thousand individual nucleotide positions to be characterized at the same time. A positive hybridization result is detected by the intensity of the fluorescence, which reflects the stability of the hybridization between the oligonucleotide probe and the target sequence of the microorganisms potentially presents in the water samples.
Unlike conventional screening methods based on morphology and physiology characteristics, molecular testing identifies one or several DNA sequences of any microorganisms including bacteria, viruses and parasites. The high resolution DNA chip technology allows a highly reliable and fast screening, and identifying, process for any type of microorganisms in the water.
Lyonnaise des Eaux is the international leader in water management, currently supplying 77 million people around the world with drinking water and 52 million people with wastewater services of which 80% are based outside France. Lyonnaise des Eaux controls the entire water cycle including water resources management, drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment. Lyonnaise des Eaux, the water division of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux Group had a turnover of FRF30.6 billion in 1997.
bioMérieux specializes in infectious disease diagnostics and industrial microbiology control. It is one of the top 10 biological diagnostics companies in the world. The company reported worldwide sales of $575 million (FRF3.232 billion) in 1998, 75 percent of which was generated in the international sector, and invests 12 percent of its annual sales in research and development.
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