1) Answer: The Mermaid #1 DNA synthesizer (96 oligos per run) and Mermaid
#2 (192 oligos/run) were created in Texas (not in Maryland), at the Univ.
Texas Southwestern Med. Ctr. They used to have a site with URL
http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/technology_transfer/utsd1227.htm
The page is missing now, and search for "mermaid" either in the search
engines like Yahoo and Lycos, or at the Southwestern Med Ctr returns
nothing. I do not know the reason. Their Web page was alive on September
26, 1998, the last time I visited them. Two possibilities:
a) the patent conflict with GIBCO-BRL (Life Technologies), described in
that article in Science two years ago, resulted in the shutdown of Mermaid;
(GIBCO is the biggest commercial supplier of oligos, they built another
robot last year and are building new robots as we speak. GIBCO bought the
Stanford patent and are not going to let anybody else use the same
technology, not without fight anyway)
b) Although the Mermaid was pronounced as "technology dedicated to the
public domain", the Sothwestern may have decided to go private and make
money. They founded last year the new Center for Biomedical Inventions, and
were suppliers for the DoE and Los Alamos, if I am not mistaken.
At any case, the boss on the Mermaid project will be the best person to
answer your question
Harold R. (Skip) Garner, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry, Office:
214-648-1600 FAX: 214-648-1666 Email: garner@utsw.swmed.edu
2) Now, my question:
Does anybody have (for free or for sale) the FAST protocol of DNA synthesis
for Beckman 1000M (as text or Excel file)?
wagner yotov
Univ. Montreal