Collections of Experimentally-Validated Human Promoter Reporter Vectors Empower
Researchers to Measure Transcriptional Regulation Across Genes in a Variety of
Different Biological Pathways
MENLO PARK, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
SwitchGear Genomics, Inc., a leading provider of products for studying
regulatory elements in the human genome, today announced the availability of the
first cost-effective, high-throughput research tools for screening
transcriptional activation and repression in a number of key biological
pathways. The new SwitchGear pathway sets utilize experimentally-validated
luciferase reporter vectors to accurately quantify human promoter activity from
complete sets of genes associated with inflammation, cholesterol biosynthesis,
oncology, vascular biology, nuclear hormone receptor signaling, and many other
important biological pathways.

"The SwitchGear panels of human promoter targets was selected from our
genome-wide reporter collection of promoters using motif analysis and published
functional genomic data sets," said Shelley Force Aldred, co-founder and
President of SwitchGear Genomics, Inc. "We then performed pathway-specific
inductions to create an activity profile across the set of constructs. We offer
complete pathway profiling sets of constructs in high-throughput plate formats
that empower researchers to efficiently profile the effects of many compounds
and conditions." In addition, the company provides a smaller subset of "key
responder" promoter constructs that showed a strong induction response in the
experiments and which may be used as biomarkers in primary screening
applications.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health screened over 1400 compounds to
test hypoxia pathway stimulation and published the results in an article
entitled "Identification of Chemical Compounds that Induce HIF-1alpha Activity."
The screening process, including the use of the SwitchGear Genomics hypoxia set
of promoter reporter assays, differentiated between 3 hypoxia mimetics and 2
other compounds that triggered the pathway independent of HIF-1alpha, a result
important for effective compound screening.

In addition to the hypoxia (HIF1a) pathway products, SwitchGear offers the
following reporter assay profiling sets in both plate format and biomarker
subsets: CREB, NF-kB, heat shock (HSF), p53, STAT, serum response factor (SRF),
and cholesterol biosynthesis (SREBP). In addition, the company offers nuclear
receptor sets for estrogen receptor, androgen receptor, and glucocorticoid
receptor pathways.

About SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.:

SwitchGear Genomics, Inc. is a leading provider of products for studying
regulatory elements in the human genome. The company has developed a
comprehensive approach to generate new insights into gene regulatory networks
and allow researchers to efficiently screen entire pathways in living cells.
SwitchGear was founded in March 2005 by Dr. Richard Myers, Dr. Nathan Trinklein
and Dr. Shelley Force Aldred from Stanford University. For more information
about SwitchGear, please visit the company's website at

http://www.switchgeargenomics.com.