Invitrogen launches patent licensing program for random prime amplification of nucleic acids

Invitrogen Corporation today announced that it has signed non-exclusive agreements with New England Biolabs, Inc., QIAGEN GmbH, and Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories, Inc. (KPL), whereby the companies have licensed Invitrogen's patented technology covering the random prime amplification of nucleic acids. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

The Invitrogen technology covered in these agreements involves methods and kits for substantially amplifying nucleic acids. It is useful in several common laboratory techniques, including random primed labeling reactions, first-strand cDNA synthesis, and whole genome amplification.

"Our random prime amplification technology is an important tool in our premier portfolio of products for genetic analysis," said Amy Butler, Invitrogen Vice President of Gene Expression Profiling. "By making this technology broadly available to other companies through licensing, we can extend the benefit to a greater number of researchers and advance this rapidly growing field of research."