Overview

Xanthon Inc., founded in 1996, employs a platform that unites semiconductor technology and biochemistry for the direct detection of nucleic acids. The company’s Xanthon Xpression Analysis System is an integrated system for high-throughput screening to aid drug discovery. The electrochemical technology, which exploits the naturally high electron content of nucleic acids, directly detects DNA and RNA without using chemical labels, purification or amplification.

The Xanthon Xpression Analysis System is expected to be available in 2002. The company also is developing its technology to move to SNP analysis and proteomics analysis. The company has a collaboration with Chiron Corp. to adapt the technology to identify infectious organisms.

Partners

It also has a worldwide nonexclusive license from Xenometrix Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Partners International Inc., for access to gene expression profiling claims in United States and European patents, covering the collection of gene expression profiles utilizing all platforms including biochips, high-density microarrays and other high-throughput methods. It has research agreements with Brown University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.