CANCER RESEARCH UK, GATC BIOTECH and DNASTAR
sign Lasergene Site License Agreement

Constance (October, 2006) - GATC Biotech, a leading provider of custom molecular biology services for industry and academia in Europe, the Cancer Research UK and
DNASTAR, Inc. signed a broad license agreement for the Lasergene® sequence analysis software developed by DNASTAR and distributed and supported by GATC.

Under the three year site license, the software will be used anywhere on CRUK’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields or Clare Hall Laboratories campuses. In addition, CRUK researchers at other sites are entitled to special terms to use Lasergene software for their research needs. Lasergene was chosen by the Cancer Research UK as it is the only software on the market which runs natively on Windows, Mac PowerPC and Mac Intel chips.

Tom Schwei, DNASTAR’s Vice President and General Manager stated, “DNASTAR has a long history of partnering with key research organizations in the UK. With great assistance from GATC Biotech, who works with DNASTAR in the distribution and support of our products throughout Europe for more than 10 years, we are gratified that CRUK chose our software for their sequence assembly and analysis research needs. We are seeing a growing trend whereby organizations elect to standardize their research platforms. We are increasingly seeing customers choose Lasergene as the platform on which to base their future genomic research activities.” 

Lasergene is a comprehensive, easy to use suite of tools for molecular biologists and geneticists used primarily in the assembly and analysis of DNA and protein sequences.  It has been sold in over 65 countries worldwide and CRUK joins a growing list of organisations that are making Lasergene the standard sequence analysis software program for their organization.

About Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is the world's leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research and is the European leader in the development of novel anti-cancer treatments. They support research into all aspects of cancer through the work of more than 3,000 scientists, doctors and nurses, carry out world-class research to improve the understanding of cancer, and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer. Cancer Research UK is almost entirely funded by donations from the public.

About GATC:
GATC Biotech (www.gatc-biotech.com), with headquarters in Constance, Germany, is a leading provider of molecular biological services and innovative bioinformatics solutions for industry and academia worldwide. GATC’s portfolio contains services in the areas of genome sequencing, high throughput and custom sequencing, transcriptomics and functional analysis, complemented by a wide range of bioinformatic software, e.g. Lasergene™ (DNA sequence analysis software) by DNASTAR Inc., ERGO™ (Genome Analysis Suite) by Integrated Genomics, as well as Mutation Surveyor™/Mutation Explorer™ (DNA variant analysis software) and GeneMarker™ (Software for AFLP and genotyping) by SoftGenetics. Today, GATC has 45 employees and serves 3000 customers in 40 countries. In 2005 GATC celebrated its 15th anniversary. Most of GATC‘s employees are scientists with long-term experience in biotechnology, molecular biology and chemistry. GATC has subsidiaries in Cambridge (UK) and Marseille (F) as well as offices in Tägerwilen (CH), Edinbourgh (UK), Munich and Hamburg. The company is ISO-certified since 1997.

About DNASTAR
DNASTAR has created software for more than 20 years to increase researchers’ productivity.  Currently, DNASTAR produces Lasergene, a sequence analysis software suite; StarBlast, a DNA and protein database searching tool; GenVision, a data visualization software application; and ArrayStar, a microarray gene expression visualization tool. 


Contact:
Elke Decker
Senior Director Marketing
Jakob-Stadler-Platz 7
D- 78467 Konstanz
Tel: +49-7531-8160-30
Fax:+49-7531-8160-81
e.decker@gatc-biotech.com