Business Editors LA JOLLA, CALIF. (Sept. 17) -Sept. 17, 1996--Digital Gene Technologies Inc. (DGT), a recently established total gene expression and comparison company based in La Jolla, Tuesday announced that it has appointed Donald Seto, Ph.D. as associate director, automation technology, according to Robert J. Sutcliffe, president and CEO.

DGT was established to apply technology based on research conducted in the laboratory of Dr. J. Gregor Sutcliffe, a company founder, and chairman of the DGT scientific advisory board, at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla. In March of this year, the company announced it had received $8 million in financing from a group of private investors organized by the company. "Don Seto represents the ideal combination of highest caliber academic qualification and first-quality commercial laboratory experience," said Sutcliffe. "Dr. Seto's expertise has been instrumental in completing automation of the DGT technology and in successfully achieving high-throughput robotic processing of tissue samples for DGT's initial osteosarcoma and schizophrenia demonstration projects."

As associate director, automation technology, Seto will be responsible for continuing optimization of the automated operations of the DGT technology and will play a major role in anticipating and developing additional automated steps for the high-throughput, robot-aided gene expression profiling. Seto was most recently a senior research scientist/principal investigator in the applied biotechnology/molecular biology division of DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., where he set up an automated DNA sequencing core facility which resulted in a quadrupling of sample throughput.

While at DuPont Merck, he also continued his research into novel methods and tools development for optimized large-scale DNA sequencing strategies and was involved in developing and evaluating robotics and novel protocols for rapid screens and assays for potential drug targets. Earlier in his career, Seto was a senior staff fellow, NIDDK, national Institutes of Health; a senior research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Leroy Hood at the California Institute of Technology, working on automated DNA sequencing and large-scale genomic sequencing; and, a predoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Maurice Bessman at The John Hopkins University. Seto received his Ph.D. in biology from

The John Hopkins University and was one of the first NIH Lawton Chiles biotechnology research fellows while at the California Institute of Technology. Digital Gene Technologies is a total gene expression and comparison company focusing on the exploitation of genomic bioinformatics through the application of proprietary technology that identifies and determines anatomical distribution and expression patterns of the genes contained in any cell or tissue sample. The company provides customers with a variety of services, including automated tissue assays, access to proprietary databases, and new gene discovery. --30--jw/la at/la CONTACT: Digital Gene Technologies Inc. Robert J. Sutcliffe, 619/552-1400