Expression Analysis Awarded EPA Contract for ToxCast™ Genomic Services

Expression Analysis, Inc. has announced that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded it a major contract for genomic services in the Agency’s ToxCast™ Program.

Expression Analysis will provide gene expression and genotyping services using microarrays from Affymetrix and Illumina, as well as TaqMan PCR assays from Applied Biosystems.

Steve McPhail, President & CEO of Expression Analysis, said, “We are delighted to continue our relationship with the EPA. In 2003, we were awarded a multi-million dollar contract from the Agency, which was extended and expanded in 2005. The ToxCast™ award demonstrates that the EPA perceives us as a high-quality, high-value provider of genomic services.”

Expression Analysis recently moved to a larger facility in Durham, NC and expanded its genomic service offerings.

“Over the past year, our Affymetrix infrastructure has dramatically increased and we have added many new services based on the Illumina and ABI TaqMan platforms,” McPhail continued, “These investments allowed us to present the EPA with an attractive suite and continuum of genomic services.”

The ToxCast™ Program will be managed by the National Center for Computational Toxicology of EPA. It is designed to provide an efficient, science-based prioritization of environmental chemicals for more detailed toxicological evaluations. ToxCast™ will encompass two phases over multiple years.

The first, proof-of-concept phase will involve over 300 chemicals, selected to include a diversity of chemical structures and toxicological profiles. The second phase will apply the approach to environmental chemicals of concern to the Agency.