Home-Based Public Relations

Ilene Schneider

Schneider the Writer

** ****** **** ****

Irvine, California 92612

Land Line: 949-***-****; Cell: 949-***-****

E-mail: **************@***.***

Website: www.schneiderthewriter.com

On-time, on-target and cost-effective communications since 1985 PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

Schneider the Writer - owner/operator since 1985 - specializing in communications for and about high technology, health care, educational and service enterprises Kosher OC – editor (2014-2016)

Orange County Jewish Life/Jlife – editor in chief (2005-2014); freelance writer (2018-present) Beckman Instruments, Inc. - senior public relations representative (1982-1985); senior staff writer

(1978-1982)

School Product News (Penton Publishing) - contributing writer (1978-1986); associate editor (1974- 1978); assistant editor (1972-1974)

Rothschild for Mayor Campaign - media coordinator (1977) TV Guide - editor, Cleveland edition (1971-1972)

Cleveland Press - suburban edition correspondent (1972) PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Women in Communications, Inc. (1976 - present)

Offices held: president, president-elect, membership vice president, treasurer, newsletter editor Public Relations Society of America (1979-1985)

American Society of Business Press Editors (1973-1979) Offices held: president, director

HONORS, AWARDS, RECOGNITION

Marquis Who’s Who – Lifetime Achievement Award

Profiled in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in Advertising, Who’s Who in Media and Communications

Profiled in book, How to Open and Operate a Home-Based Writing Business Women in Communications, Inc. Clarion Award - advertising Articles reprinted by Encyclopaedia Britannica Education Corporation, Journal of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities

Society of Technical Communications - judge, Orange County Technical Publications Competition Temple Beth Sholom – Congregant of the Year

Hadassah – Centennial and Leadership Award

Speaker on public relations and creativity at Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and professional organization meetings

EDUCATION

University of Pennsylvania - Bachelor of Arts degree CLIENTELE 1985-2020

Public relations/advertising consulting

and copywriting

Health care/high technology

AdLink

Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Analect Instruments

Analytical Products, Inc.

Analytichem International, Inc.

Beckman Instruments, Inc.

BesTech Consulting Inc.

Bestech Services Inc.

BioCal Technology, Inc.

Broadway Manor Guest Home

Concentrus

Clinetics Corp.

Clinic for Infectious Diseases

Complete Medical Care

DMI, Inc.

DayLite Co.

DayBreak Center for the Elderly

Doculink

Ecrivons/InfoTeam

eGene Inc.

Eksigent Technologies

Elpac Power Systems

EurExpo

Evergreen Scientific, Inc.

Fresenius

Golden Creek Inn

Green Light Communications

Heraeus, Inc.

Heritage Pointe

Hoefer/Pharmacia Inc.

Horiba Instruments, Inc.

Huntington Terrace

Impresse Marketing

Iotron Inc.

IRSLogics

John Wayne Airport Medical Clinic/

Cancer Detection Center

JPA

KOMPspin Technologies

LabVantage Solutions, Inc.

Lisa's Care Home

StoneTemple

Suzanne Maricich and Associates

Medennium, Inc.

Midwest Scientific

Millipore Corp.

MOS Scale

NeuroComp

Nissei Electronics Ltd.

OLEC Corporation

Orange County Cardio Inc.

PatLab Inc.

PerkinElmer

Petrov

Premier Laser, Inc.

Professional Health Care Services, Inc.

Quark Biosciences

Rankin Group

RNAture, Inc.

RSS, Inc.

Rothenberg Chiropractic

Saddlebay Health Enterprises

Scantron

Sage Software

SeaLAN Systems, Inc.

Sorin Biomedical Inc.

Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing Corp.

Spectrum Marketing Group

Spectrum Technology Inc.

The Creative Group

Union Scientific

UniSyn Technologies, Inc.

UniVite

Urdea Full Life Chiropractic

UT

Versaggi Biocommunications

Webcon

West Pharmaceutical

Public relations/advertising consulting

and copywriting

Other

AD/S

Accountability Brothers

Action Rental Locators

Asian Women Entripreneurs

Associated Planners

J.W. Bell & Company

Birtcher Senior Properties

Cannery Village Realty

Century 21 Executive/Beachside

Claremont High School

Clauder Companies

Corporate Writing Resources

County of Orange

Creative Energies

Deckstand

Envy Day Spa

Execuplan Inc.

Fawcett VideoMarketing Sales

Foundation of the Jewish Community

Federation of Orange County

Friends of Deborah Gavello

Friends of Marcia Milchiker

Hebrew Academy

Home and Garden

Hubbert Advertising

International Travel Specialists

IntroNet Solutions

Israel Up Close

Jewish Collaborative of Orange County

Jewish Community Center of Orange

County

Jewish National Fund

Jewish Senior Center of Orange County

Kimco

Klein Financial Advisors

Law&Lewis LLP

McLean/Gill Inc.

Merrill Lynch Realty of Newport Beach

Money Source

Orange County Department of Education

The Quota Institute

Re/Max Investment Properties

Re/Max Realty of Costa Mesa

Re/Max Realty of Irvine

Re/Max Realty of Newport Beach

Rizzuti-Garrett, Inc.

RSG

St. Croix Retail

Smets Architectural Group

Speech Communication Associates

Strategic Coach

Swartz Commercial Real Estate

Tarbut V’Torah

Temple Judea

TIPSCO, Inc.

Titan Personnel

United Revenue Service

University Synagogue

Western Exposure

Corporate and association publication feature writing and blogging American Chemical Society

Association of Junior Leagues

B.F. Goodrich

Home Publications

Kareo

The Personal Marketing Co.

Pinnacle

South Orange County Chamber of Commerce

TRW, Inc.

Newspaper, magazine, e-zine, blog and wire service feature writing Adesso

Apartment Owner/Builder

Aqua

Arizona Jewish Life

BioWorld Perspectives

Business Press of Orange County

Business to Business

Clean Rooms

Drug Discovery News

Drug Discovery & Development

Epoch Times

Family Business

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Genomics & Proteomics

Guide to Whirlpool Baths

Irvine Spectrum News

Jewish Journal

Kosher OC

Lab Roots

Lasers in Medicine

Liberty Street Chronicle

Los Angeles Business Journal

Medical Device Daily Perspectives

Medical Laboratory Observer

Medical Laser Insight

Medical Laser Report

Newport News

OC Ad News

Orange Coast Daily Pilot

Orange County Business Journal

Orange County Jewish Life

Orange County Media Group

Oregon Jewish Life

Patch.com

Reliance

School & College Product News

The Scientist

Sea

Senior Health Care News

Society for Laboratory Automation and

Screening Electronic Laboratory News

Southland High Tech

Souvenir, Gift & Design News

Souvenirs. Gifts & Novelties

Spectrum Independent

SynQuence

The Clinical Scoop

UBM

United Press International (UPI)

Vision and Aging

Clinical evaluation report writing

Johnson & Johnson Vision

Technical manual writing

CH2M Hill

Communicator's Connection

Proposal writing

C.L. Technology Inc.

Camp Fire, Inc.

Biognosis, Inc.

BioOptions, Inc.

Irvine Sensors Corporation

Editing

Learning for Success

Mucho.com

Market research

Business Communications Company

Teaching

Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple (Grade 2)

Temple Beth Sholom (Grades 2 and 4, Torah Study leader) Kinderschule (Combined Grades 6 through 9)

Dyke College (College-level seminar on “Youth in Politics”) The Tutors Club (Middle school tutoring for the No Child Left Behind program) Political campaigning and election work

Writing newsletters and campaign mailers for candidates and elected officials Petition circulation and voter registration

Coordinator/precinct inspector/poll worker

Synergy among Neighbors

Quintiles acquires Expression Analysis to advance safety, efficacy and value of personalized medicine

By Ilene Schneider

Research Triangle Park, NC. -- Quintiles’ recent acquisition of Expression Analysis, Inc. (EA), a premier provider of genomics testing and analysis to biopharma, academic, government and non-profit customers, is being described by both parties and their customers as a “win-win-win situation.”

“We were looking for excellence in the genomic space and bioinformatics, as well as R&D capability, and EA played into that well, being a profitable, flexible company with a strong management team,” says Thomas Wollman, senior vice president of Quintiles Global Laboratories, which was founded in 1982.

“The addition of EA’s Genomic Know-How(R) to Quintiles is another step forward in our efforts to bring personalized medicine into mainstream drug development. EA’s expertise in genetic sequencing and advanced bioinformatics is essential to understanding diseases and drugs at the molecular level. That’s a huge step in creating more value across the healthcare spectrum.” A fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide, Quintiles Global Laboratories is attempting to help its customers leverage the power of genomics to better understand diseases; develop diagnostic tools; and deliver safer, more effective therapies based on the genetic makeup of the disease and the patient. Quintiles Global Laboratories supports trials worldwide with wholly owned facilities in the U.S., Europe, South Africa, India, China, Singapore and Japan, and a tightly coordinated network of affiliate laboratories in Argentina and Brazil. All Quintiles laboratories operate with uniform instrumentation and standard operating procedures. The company helps biopharmaceutical companies develop and commercialize products to improve and lengthen patients' lives while demonstrating value to stakeholders. Interestingly, Quintiles, which has 25,000 professionals in 60 countries, didn’t have to look far to make the acquisition. EA, which has about 77 employees, has offices based 3 miles away from Quintiles. Offering a broad range of services across multiple platforms, EA provides whole genome to focused-set gene expression and genotyping assays, along with next-generation sequencing services, sequence enrichment technologies and bioinformatics support,.

"The whole process is a dream come true for us,” says Steve McPhail, EA president and chief executive officer. “This is the right move for our customers, vendors and employees. Our mission perfectly fits Quintiles’ strategy to use genomic data and advanced informatics to yield actionable insights and more effective personalized treatments. The combination will facilitate worldwide access to resources and expertise to drive improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and management of complex disease by moving genomic testing into clinical trials.

“EA can now play a global role in helping biopharma succeed in the New Health,” adds McPhail. “We’re seeing our vision become a reality.”

According to Jeffrey Spaeder, Quintiles’ chief medical and scientific officer and a cardiologist by training, the acquisition of EA, one of many for Quintiles, fits into the company’s strategy to address personalized medicine. As he explains, “There has been a change in the risk tolerance of regulators, payers and patients. Now we have to maximize the efficacy and safety of clinical trials while also targeting patients in a way where the therapy will show value.”

Describing these needs as “the new normal,” Spaeder says that clinical studies need to address “the regulatory pathway and what payers are concerned about in treating a particular population” and “make sure we demonstrate that a given therapy has value to payers.” Specifically, that requires knowledge about molecular and cellular pathways and interactions between them to understand why therapies work on certain patients but not others, a method to translate that understanding into a way to stratify patients globally and an application to incorporate metrics into clinical studies. Spaeder believes that molecular and cellular pathways are quantifiable, but how to tap into patients is another component of personalized medicine. Quintiles will be looking at how to share, reduce and mitigate risks for end users by “showing what patients a drug is useful for,” how to identify those patients,

“how to deliver the most bang for the buck” and how to get the greatest value.

“EA, with its emphasis on genomics, will help us to stratify patients in the future,” Spaeder concludes.

“That will be especially significant for oncology, automimmune and infectious disease.”

(Drug Discovery News, September 2012)

Telemedicine Offers Accessibility

By Ilene Schneider, Contributing Writer

Telemedicine appears to be a concept whose time has come. With technology readily available and various aspects of health care reform in place, telemedicine could become a reality for many underserved populations.

"The tasks facing the nation in improving the health status of Americans through major reform of the health system are formidable," but telemedicine "is a cost-effective and clinically effective solution" in the context of providing access to healthcare for currently under-insured populations, and achieving parity of reimbursement between digitally supported and traditional care, in the words of a 2009 white paper called

"National Telemedicine Initiatives: Essential to Healthcare Reform," as reported by Telemedicine and eHealth. (http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/tmj.2009.9960?cookieSet=1) According to Shawn Riley, writing in HealthTechnica.com (www.healthtechnica.com), “Telemedicine improves accessibility to health care facilities for the patient living in remote areas and allows physicians to reach out to patients and expand their services beyond their own clinic. Telemedicine reduces traveling time for both patient and the health care provider. It also decreases the number of hospital stays, allows for shared health professional staffing that translates into reduced health care cost. Along with the reduction in travel time it also reduces the stress related to traveling. It improves continuity of patient care as the patient, primary care physician, specialist, and family members may be actively involved during a consultation.”

Riley explains that “telemedicine” is derived from the Greek word "tele," meaning "distance," and the Latin word "mederi," meaning "to heal." Telemedicine attempts to give people access to timely, good-quality health care, regardless of where they live by “using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of healthcare providers.” Is telemedicine a panacea, particularly for remote areas with few doctors? Can it bridge the gap when doctors need to consult with one another in the absence of time and personnel? Is it as good as traditional medicine for making a diagnosis? Is it actually better at resolving medical problems? How much of a role does the cost factor play in the decision to utilize telemedicine? In the same vein as home health care, telemedicine can reduce the cost and inconvenience of hospital stays. It can bring health care professionals anywhere in the world in contact with one another to confer on patient diagnosis and treatment, and it can provide readily available electronic assessment of care to health care professionals even when they are offsite. If a patient is on vacation and not within driving distance of his or her primary provider, the primary provider can apprise the physician in charge of the case about the patient’s special requirements and conditions. Similarly, a physician in an intensive care unit can communicate readily with a primary care physician to obtain all of the necessary details on a patient and then communicate the treatment plan back to the primary physician. However, these scenarios assume that the patient has a primary provider in the first place. The benefits of telemedicine will really be tested for people in rural areas of the U.S. who do not have face-to-face contact with physicians on a regular basis. Riley’s article talked about a scenario in which “a patient or a health care provider, or caregiver may use a wireless phone to automatically upload vital signs and send it to a remote monitoring center.” The effectiveness of such a situation may depend upon the person doing the transmitting and the person doing the followup after the physician or other professional at the remote monitoring center does the diagnosis. How can the person at the remote monitoring center know the actual condition of a patient he or she has not seen? How can telemedicine assure compliance with the treatment regimen once it has been established? Another study attempted to establish the benefits of telemedicine in an intensive care unit. According to Devra K. Dang, a faculty member at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, results from an observational study indicate that “implementation of a multifaceted health information technology bundle with remote intensivist coverage reduces mortality and use of mechanical ventilation in adult patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) compared with a historical control.” The observational study at three intensive care units of academic hospitals indicated that patients had better outcomes when telemedicine was used and when an intensive care physician made rounds every two hours.

(http://www.pharmacist.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home2&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&C ONTENTID=23591)

However, as the article pointed out, “not every study has shown a benefit with the use of telemedicine on outcomes in patients in the ICU.” Another observational study conducted in five large U.S. hospitals found that remote monitoring of ICU patients “was not associated with an overall improvement in mortality or length of stay.” In the latter example, nearly two-thirds of patients had “minimal exposure to tele-ICU intervention, and the teleintensivists did not have access to a computerized physician order entry system or electronic medical records in the ICUs.” The article concluded, “Additional trials are needed to fully understand the benefits of telemedicine in the ICU population.” Finally, medical professionals need to stand their ground in making sure that telemedicine is not just about cost effectiveness. It must balance that goal with clinical effectiveness, and the proper procedures must be in place on both ends of the electronic transmission. While telemedicine can and will save money if properly implemented, inadequate controls and inadequate personal attention from physicians can have disastrous consequences. The first rule of telemedicine should be the same first rule of any medical endeavor: First do no harm.

(Medical Device Daily, July 2008)

New applications, automation, price wars

enliven custom DNA synthesis market

By Ilene Schneider

“The custom DNA synthesis market has exploded as DNA has gone from an area of research to a tool that many people are using for diagnostics and therapeutics,” says Amy Arrow, Ph.D., co-founder and vice president of Oligos, Etc. (Newtown, Connecticut). “Still, DNA will never be a commodity. It’s a challenge to make it piece by piece, like a pearl necklace.” During the 10 years that Oligos Etc. has been a contract manufacturer of synthetic DNA, Dr. Arrow has witnessed an upsurge in customers who buy 50-nanomole quantities, as well as those who purchase large quantities. These customers include research institutions, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies, she says.

Mark Behlke, vice president of research and development at Integrated DNA Technologies (Coralville, Iowa), sees the “exploding market” in the area of contract research. He adds clinical laboratories, “who usually order high-reproducibility PCR primers,” to the mix of customers.

“Practically anyone who uses molecular biology can (and does) use these products and services,” adds Erik Stokhof, public relations manager of Eurogentec (Seraing, Belgium). “The market ranges from students of biology, to biochemists to MDs who take an interest in research. A customer can be a student arranging a PCR experiment, a researcher working on antisense technology, a company that sequences for other companies or a medical analysis lab that does genetic fingerprinting. Anyone who has any use for unique genetic determinants (fingerprinting) in no matter what form is a potential client.”

“Genome researchers have changed the face of the custom DNA synthesis market, and we don't expect the explosive growth to end anytime soon,” says Claudia Bak, product manager at Life Technologies

(Gaithersburg, MD), who adds forensics and genetic identity testing as important uses of custom DNA.

“The custom DNA template or probe is the main reagent for many applications,” explains Cal Froberg, DNA product manager at Genosys Biotechnologies (The Woodlands, Texas). “It’s like the primer or toner for the copy machine.”

“Anybody in genetic analysis and sequence detection or anybody who uses fluorescence technology can use custom DNA synthesis,” says Clark Mason, custom synthesis product manager at Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems (Foster City, CA).

Robert Saul, chief executive officer of Operon (Alameda, California) and Don McCarty, chief executive officer of The Midland Certified Reagent Co. (Midland, Texas) agree that the market is split between industrial (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) and non-profit organization (universities, government and genome center) users. According to Saul, the market was about 80-percent academic in the late 1980s. “Today, the industrial users buy larger quantities of DNA, possibly thousands of oligonucleotides for massive screening projects, while university researchers, who represent greater numbers of buyers, might order 2 to 4 oligos to investigate one particular gene,” he explains. Most custom DNA producers agree that the market has changed dramatically from 5 or 10 years ago. Many company representatives place the growth rate at about 20 percent per year. Saul estimates current oligonucleotide revenues at about $200 million -- $100 million for the commercial producers and

$100 million made by people who have their own equipment. Steve DeGraw, general manager of Synthetic Genetics (San Diego, California), a GMP facility that has been operating for 14 years, estimates the market at somewhere between $150 and $200 million, with a 50-percent annual growth rate. Fueling the growth are the genomics industry and the development of new automated technology, he says.

“The automation allows for higher throughput and better service,” Bak explains. “Robotics, microchips and electronic ordering systems have made a tremendous impact on the market.” As Stokhof puts it, “Ten years ago, there barely was a market. Since the advent of PCR and related techniques and technologies, the market has boomed.”

“The revenue for oligo companies is up, but not as much as the number of oligos made has gone up,” Saul adds. “Prices have gone down dramatically, but the volume of oligos is up a hundredfold in 10 years.”

“Price wars of a couple of years ago have virtually shut down university core laboratories, “ DeGraw says.

“Prices have dropped as low as 50 cents per base,” Behlke adds, while McCarty, who says that prices have stabilized in the last two years, places the cost at “under a dollar.”

“Two years ago, there were serious price wars, which resulted in a tumbling down of prices and a tumbling down of quality,” Dr. Arrow says. “Now the prices have stabilized, there’s been a shakeout of the market and people are more concerned with quality. Now we have more educated consumers who realize that not all DNA is created equal.”

Dr. Arrow adds, “ Since we do our own research as Oligo Therapeutics, it’s especially important not to supply anything that we wouldn’t use ourselves. Everything in research is being able to trust your results.”

DeGraw says that there are three kinds of custom DNA synthesis companies. One variety is the mass- producing oligonucleotide company that makes its own instruments and turns out basically one kind of product. Another category is companies that make some modifications. A third category is the kind of company that adds fluorescent labels and conjugates.

“In the third kind of company, the margins are higher, and the turnaround times are longer,” DeGraw says. “A lot more handling and expertise are required.”

“The custom DNA synthesis industry is divided into specialists providing intelligent oligos and companies providing ‘plain vanilla’ oligos,” Mason says.

Ongoing trends in custom DNA synthesis include increasing automation for producing and purifying DNA, as well as technology for errorless ordering by means of web sites. These web sites often advertise the methods, such as SDS PAGE, special dye analysis, minigel analysis, mass spectrometry, reversed phase HPLC and ion exchange HPLC, used to determine the quality of oligonucleotides, as well as the data management and downstream processing capabilities of custom DNA synthesis companies.

“People realize how beneficial purification is,” Behlke says. “Even if an oligo is 99-percent pure, it’s just not adequate, especially if it’s a longer oligo. Added degrees of quality are extremely important.”

“Strong progress in DNA synthesis and purification technology chemistry and engineering have changed the custom DNA industry,” Stokhof adds. “Originally, the instruments were not intended to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to allow the synthesis of multiple oligos at the same time, their deprotection and cleavage, to use the least amount of reagents possible, and to minimize the waste generation.”

While some custom DNA producers build their own synthesizers, most emphasize the need for being aware of and using the latest technology available. Dr. Arrow says that Oligos Etc. uses its own custom- developed synthesizer as well as 30 other units to make 50-nanomole to kilogram quantities. “New machines are the only way you can stay in business,” McCarty, whose company is 20 years old, emphasizes.

Why should customers use custom DNA services instead of buying their own instruments? According to Stokhof, “In view of the cost of instrumentation, training, reagents, time, space and other factors, it is usually not a cost-effective option to buy your own instruments. Only very high-volume users with an internal company (or institution) structure that allows efficient use would benefit from buying their own synthesizers and/or sequencers.”

“Some people still buy their own instruments, but they require maintenance as well as reagent expenditures,” Saul says. “In the late 1980s, custom DNA companies represented only 10 percent of the oligonucleotides being made. Now it’s 50 percent. Costs from custom DNA companies are down by a factor of 10, and efficiency is much greater.”

“Commercial companies have scales of efficiency in quality control, data management and downstream processing,” Froberg says. “You can’t make DNA as cheaply as you can buy it.” Saul continues, “Individual companies or other users couldn’t compete with custom DNA companies on the basis of cost or speed. Automated, large operations provide economies of scale. With 24- to 48-hour shipments being standard, people don’t need to bother trying to do this themselves.”

“There’s a great need for speed,” adds Behlke. “Today, we can take orders directly from e-mail to production and turn them around almost immediately without human contact. Web integration has minimized errors, and robotics have allowed custom modifications, allowing tremendous speed and fidelity.”

All of the custom DNA producers agree that the future looks bright for DNA synthesis services. DeGraw says that market forecasts predict that the industry will triple or quadruple by the year 2000. Dr. Arrow thinks that the market will grow exponentially as more antibody-based tests become diagnostic tests. Bak expects a growth rate of as much as 40 to 50 percent per year.

“Quality is increasing as reagents and technology get better, which means that business is doubling every year,” Behlke says.

Froberg says, “As more research and applications develop, volumes are increasing. Oligos are not rare today.”

According to Stokhof, “As technologies progress, the pure DNA synthesis service will probably lead to products where oligonucleotides are but a part of the product offered. On the other hand, oligonucleotides are such a basic tool that they will be used for a long time to come.”

“People are asking for more complex oligonucleotides, so the inherent value of oligos is going up,” Mason adds.

McCarty believes that there will be more and more need for DNA in the future. He thinks that the food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries will need custom DNA even more than they do now as new applications evolve. Mason thinks that fluorescent-based technology will become the industry standard. Saul says that the reduced prices of DNA as a result of the price wars have “triggered new applications that would have been prohibitively expensive but are now feasible. Biotech is growing anyway as scaleup technologies develop.”

Emphasizing the ramifications of the Human Genome Project on the need for DNA, Saul adds, “Some of the major genome projects have been completed. As each gets completed, huge databases will be available, and researchers will need to order oligos to analyze them. It will be a gold mine for some oligonucleotide companies.”

“New instruments on the market are creating an even greater demand for custom oligos,” Mason concludes. “We’re just about caught up in a tornado, and the challenge is to keep up with the demand.

Producers of custom DNA agree that technology has played a key role in the growth of the market. While company officials say that customers cannot make DNA as cheaply themselves as they can buy it, manufacturers of DNA synthesizers are trying to make desktop DNA a reality. Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (Piscataway, New Jersey) offers the SEQ4x4 Personal DNA Sequencer, a fluorescence-based

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