Stratagene Introduces a New Product for Human Splice Variant Discovery

Stratagene Corporation (NASDAQ:STGN), a developer,
manufacturer and marketer of specialized life science research and
diagnostic products, today announced the commercial availability of
the Human SpliceMiner(TM) cDNA Library Panel. This new product greatly
simplifies the process of discovering rare and unique alternative
splice forms that would have otherwise been difficult or impossible to
detect by current methods.
   "Defects in mRNA splicing are an important cause of disease.
Alternative splicing has also been found to be associated with cancer
and may also play a role in the pharmacological properties of drugs.
Many of our SpliceMiner panel cancer cell lines are in use at the
National Cancer Institute of the US National Institutes of Health to
screen for anticancer drugs," said David Weber, Senior Vice President
of Marketing for Stratagene. "We believe that the area of alternative
splicing is a growing market and that the new SpliceMiner panel
provides an effective discovery method that can be practiced in any
molecular biology laboratory."
   The Human SpliceMiner cDNA library panel consists of ~4.6 million
primary cDNA clones derived from 15 high-quality cDNA plasmid
libraries representing 28 cancer cell lines and 32 normal human
tissues, including 14 sub-regions of the brain. The SpliceMiner panel
design facilitates capture of rare mRNAs and is enriched for complete
cDNA transcripts, while maintaining mRNA representation found in the
original human source material.
   Unlike a traditional cDNA library where the entire content is
pooled into one highly complex sample, SpliceMiner cDNA clones are
arrayed into 384 lower complexity pools (4 x 96 well format). The
pools are strategically segregated to enhance the probability of
amplifying one specific splice variant per well. The segregated pool
in each well contains ~12,000 clones. By amplifying multiple
lower-complexity pools, the statistical probability of finding a
single splice variant of a particular mRNA is vastly improved,
especially for low-to-medium abundance transcripts.
   The new Human SpliceMiner panel is a perfect downstream solution
for those wanting to find new splice variants of their gene and to
further analyze data generated with new exon and tiling arrays
recently introduced into the market.
   For more information, visit
http://www.stratagene.com/products/displayProduct.aspx?pid=781

   About Stratagene Corporation

   Stratagene is a developer, marketer and manufacturer of
specialized life science research and diagnostic products. The
Company's life science research unit supports advances in science by
inventing, manufacturing and distributing products that simplify,
accelerate and improve research. These products are used throughout
the academic, industrial and government research sectors in fields
spanning molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and
toxicology. The Company's diagnostic unit develops and manufactures
products for urinalysis, and high quality automated instrument and
reagent systems that use blood samples to test for more than 1,000
different allergies and autoimmune disorders. In addition, by
combining its expertise in diagnostics and molecular biology, as well
as its experience with FDA regulatory procedures, the Company is
pursuing opportunities to expand its product portfolio to include
molecular diagnostic kits and instrumentation. More information is
available at www.stratagene.com.