A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Perlegen Sciences (Mountain View, California) reported a four-year research collaboration with Pfizer (New York) for whole genome and replication studies that may identify genes associated with major diseases and predict patient responses to certain medicines.

Researchers from both companies will conduct whole genome studies involving DNA samples from clinical trials. Pfizer and Perlegen scientists will design the research and analyze the results. Perlegen will conduct the genotyping in the individual samples, using Affymetrix GeneChip technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Perlegen and Pfizer will share in certain intellectual property rights resulting from the collaboration. Pfizer will provide research payments to Perlegen.

StatSeal (Bellevue, Washington), which describes itself as the developer of the first stable liquid fibrin sealant, under development since 2002, said the StatSeal sealant will be used as a delivery platform for antibiotics used to treat resistant infections being developed by Dr. Patrick Gillevet at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia).

StatSeal will be facilitating research and development by Wilson Burgess, the company's chief science officer.

In other agreements:

• SunGard Availability Services (Wayne, Pennsylvania) reported a strategic alliance with InSiteOne (Wallingford, Connecticut) to deliver SunGard's Service for Medical Images (SMI), a study management service to store and access digital images from a secure SunGard archive. SMI utilizes SunGard's Information Availability capabilities to help organizations to have "on demand" access to images, along with InSiteOne's InDex medical image storage and archiving software and architecture.

SMI has a managed service model that provides hospitals, imaging centers and physician group practices with high-speed, Internet-based access to a secure SunGard storage facility. This approach helps organizations to avoid the high capital expenditure and technology obsolescence issues typically found with long-term study management of medical images.