LBNL-led Team Wins Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award

Summary

A “Bronze” (third place, out of over 700 entries) 2008 Technology Innovation Award from the Wall Street Journal has been awarded for LBNL’s “PhyloChip” that can rapidly analyze DNA sample to identify thousands of different varieties of bacteria in air, water, soil, blood, or tissue samples. The PhyloChip, developed by a LBNL team headed by Gary Andersen for potential biodefense applications, has powerful “dual-use” applications and is proving useful for analyses of environmental bacteria. The PhyloChip, can be used to recognize up to 8,700 different organisms in a single sample in a matter of hours and can detect potentially disease-causing bacteria without the lengthy process of growing cultures. Its manufacturer, Affymetrix Inc., has sold more than 2,500 chips to universities and other researchers to investigate bacteria in municipal and recreational water supplies among other places.