Luminex Corp, Austin, Tex, a provider of multiplexed solutions, and Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn, have signed a development licensing agreement enabling Mayo to provide genetic and other testing services to patients using the company’s xMAP technology.
The agreement contains collaboration and licensing provisions for the inherited disorder thalassemia and provides opportunities for additional test content creation.
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder caused by defects in the genes that make hemoglobin. Those with thalassemia have less hemoglobin and fewer red blood cells than those without the disease, which results in anemia. In its mildest forms, thalassemia may not require any treatment, but more severe forms of the disease may require regular blood transfusions.
More than two million people nationwide may carry the genetic trait for thalassemia.
Mayo Clinic will enhance its current genetic testing services for thalassemia to include a new molecular diagnostic test based on multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and bead-based liquid micro-array technology using the xMAP technology.
