MOgene, LC, the first company to move into ITenterprises at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, announced the sequencing of three oil palm genomes, two of which originated in Africa and one native to South America.
“We are thrilled to accomplish such a project so soon after moving to ITe,” said Dr. Ralph Quatrano, a founder of MOgene. “Our experience in setting up there six months ago has been extremely good. We’re happy with the accommodations and it certainly suits our needs.”
ITenterprises works closely with corporate and research entities in the St. Louis, Mo. metropolitan area to facilitate economic development, technology transfer and expanded research, and educational opportunities. It houses multiple startup companies in the high-growth fields of information technology and life sciences, providing necessary infrastructure and services to advance their work.
“We are thrilled with the outcome of the palm oil genome and are ready to begin genome sequencing of other organisms including additional crop plants,” Quatrano said. “We hope to continue more groundbreaking research like this in the future.”
MOgene is a critical member of a consortium co-led by The Malaysian Palm Oil Board and Orion Genomics. The MPOB will now be able to leverage comparative genomic information from other crops. The genomic information will prove valuable for Malaysia and other palm-growing regions of the world to sustainably produce biomass and vegetable oil in the quality and quantities required for their diverse applications.
The consortium also included the Genome Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., South Korea-based Macrogen, Inc. and Adelaide, Australia-based GeneWorks Pty Ltd.
MOgene is a service company focused primarily on microarray service for gene expression and array-CGH, which includes custom design of arrays, experimental design and detailed bioinformatic analyses. MOgene uses a systems biology approach to understand gene function in the context of biological pathways, to develop assays and biomarkers for molecular diagnostic solutions.
Visit http://www.mogene.com and http://www.itenterprises-stl.org/ for more information.
