¿Applied Biosciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., formerly PE Biosystems, and Epoch Biosciences Inc., of Redmond, Wash., expanded their partnership from a limited licensing agreement to a strategic alliance that incorporates Epoch's technology into Applied Bioscience's entire line of TagMan reagents. The TagMan probe will include Epoch's minor groove binder technology, supplementing TagMan's existing gene expression capabilities and allowing improved discrimination in SNP genotyping experiments.

¿Encelle Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., said it has received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant to evaluate its hydrogel matrix, an injectable biopolymer material with possible wound-healing therapeutic benefits. The company filed an investigational device exemption with the FDA and hopes to bring the product to clinical trials later this year.

¿Incyte Genomics Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., filed two patent infringement suits. One, against Gene Logic Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., claims infringement on U.S. Patent No. 6,023,659, which relates to Incyte's proprietary database systems employing gene classification based on protein function. The second alleges patent infringement by Affymetrix Inc., of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,716,785 and 5,891,636, which cover technologies used in the creation of gene expression data. Late last year Incyte filed suit against Gene Logic alleging infringement for technology used in the creation of gene expression data.