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More ACTG Birdflu News...

CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics to Test for Influenza; Service Will Enable Identification of (H5N1) Bird Flu
Business Wire - December 06, 2005 07:00

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec 06, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:CBMX)(Nasdaq:ACTG) announced today that its CombiMatrix group's wholly owned subsidiary, CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics (CMD), is now offering influenza testing services utilizing the CombiMatrix Influenza DNA-based microarray. The array will enable genetic identification of the specific type of influenza including the (H5N1) bird flu as well as others.

This influenza analysis may be run on animal as well as human samples for Research Use Only (RUO). At the current time, the influenza array is not an FDA approved product, nor will it be run in a CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) - certified facility, as CMD is currently awaiting laboratory certification. Those interested in having samples tested will be provided specimen collection kits with appropriate instructions.

"Although our primary focus is on gene-based cancer diagnostics, the flexibility of our technology enables us to rapidly address public health concerns such as viral diseases that have the potential to cause pandemics," stated Matt Watson, CEO of CMD. "We are already in discussions with many domestic and international agencies and we believe this will be a powerful tool for monitoring of the H5N1 Asian Bird Flu."

Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of CombiMatrix Corporation, said, "We are constantly reading reports of birds as well as humans who have been infected with or have died from an influenza. Often these reports indicate that conventional testing was not able to identify the causative influenza strain. Through our molecular diagnostics laboratory, CMD, we wanted to offer our testing services to those who have a need for a very powerful and comprehensive testing service for influenza."

For further information on this service please contact CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics at [phone] or by email at [e-mail].

COMBIMATRIX INFLUENZA ARRAY

CombiMatrix's Influenza Microarray is a member of the CombiMatrix CatalogArray(TM) product line and can detect and accurately type flu strains using a protocol that requires less than four hours start to finish. This new microarray can identify H5N1 bird flu as well as provide information on mutations and novel strains of flu not yet seen. The Influenza array provides very-high-resolution genotype information on any given flu strain as well as information on novel strains of flu produced by rapid mutation or recombination between multiple strains of flu. It is designed to work on samples from humans as well as from birds, pigs, horses, dogs, and various other animals.

CombiMatrix CatalogArray's contain in situ synthesized oligonucleotides, prepared using CombiMatrix's patented virtual-flask technology. Sensitivity and performance metrics are available from the company's web site and at www.customarray.com.

ABOUT ACACIA RESEARCH CORPORATION

Acacia Research Corporation comprises two operating groups: Acacia Technologies Group and CombiMatrix Group.

The CombiMatrix group is developing a platform technology to rapidly produce customizable arrays, which are semiconductor-based tools for use in identifying and determining the roles of genes, gene mutations and proteins. The CombiMatrix's group's technology has a wide range of potential applications in the areas of genomics, proteomics, biosensors, drug discovery, drug development, diagnostics, combinatorial chemistry, material sciences and nanotechnology.

The Acacia Technologies group develops, acquires, and licenses patented technologies. Acacia controls 34 patent portfolios, which include over 130 U.S. patents, and certain foreign counterparts, covering technologies used in a wide variety of industries including audio/video enhancement & synchronization, broadcast data retrieval, computer memory cache coherency, credit card fraud protection, database management, data encryption & product activation, digital media transmission (DMT(R)), digital video production, dynamic manufacturing modeling, enhanced Internet navigation, high resolution optics, image resolution enhancement, interactive data sharing, interactive television, hearing aid ECS, interstitial Internet advertising, laptop docking station connectivity, microprocessor enhancement, multi-dimensional bar codes, network data storage, resource scheduling, rotational video imaging and spreadsheet automation.

Acacia Research-Acacia Technologies (Nasdaq:ACTG) and Acacia Research-CombiMatrix (Nasdaq:CBMX) are both classes of common stock issued by Acacia Research Corporation and are intended to reflect the performance of the respective operating groups and are not issued by the operating groups.