Re:Editorial? (Score 4)

Doc Hunkapiller has been publishing since 1972. He started work with Leroy Hood's lab, mainly in peptide sequencing. His later publications have been more directed to DNA sequencing and automation efforts. he has definetly earned his spurs in the field - sequencing proteins back in the seventies was no laughing matter. Judging by his shareholder letters and his research directions, I would judge that he is pretty committed to what he does. Evangelical? - possibly. Have I ever met the man - no. What do I know about PE - they're bloody expensive. I'm also aware of the Taq polymerase patent wars. From what I remember, PE owns the patent on Taq and PCR and expects everyone else to pay them. Another bloody stupid idea from the US Patent Office. Perhaps someone could update this one. Are they similar to MSFT? Not really - there's no perceived feeling of envelope and destroy. They have good but expensive equipment and products. There are also other competitors who market and sell their technology too. I have no experience with their marketing dept - perhaps someone else could answer this. Technology wise, they have a very fast successful sequencer which appears to have been codeveloped with Stanford. There are patent issues - the goverment are investigating whether research money was inappropriately used to create this technology. However, I've seen at least three other examples of capillary sequencing technology developed in various labs and countries which are different enough to PE's machines to present a challenge. Considering sequencing technology, yes they do have a lot of sequencing products, big dye chemistry, the originala fluorescent dyes, etc. Do people have to use PE's products - No! You can buy the original dyes from a number of companies. The big dye chemistry is proprietary to PE but I never have used - I didn't see the advantage that it supposedly offered. My background is pretty traditional - make it rather than buy it, kits are unreliable and encourage sloppy science. Market share - yes. Everyone's in molecular biology has heard of PE and sequencing and genotyping are both pretty heavily based on PE products. Are these the only products on offer - no. I can think of several other companies that offer as good a product that is more competitivly priced. Do I think the comparisson is valid - not at the moment. Genomics has the advantage of a number of companies that are successful and in this field. PE does have name recognition outside the field but in the field its one of many companies. Just a couple of thoughts on the subject...