News Briefs

Citing the recent controversy over the filing of UMC's financial statements, during which the Financial Supervisory Commission has accused UMC employees of insider trading, company Chairman Robert Tsao today announced that he plans to resign from his positions as chairman and board member of the Taipei, Taiwan-based semiconductor foundry. The resignation will be formally presented to the UMC board at its March meeting, Tsao said, with company CEO Jackson Hu taking over his duties as chairman. . . . Jmar Technologies Inc. of San Diego, a maker of laser-based equipment for imaging, analysis and fabrication at the nanoscale, has been selected for inclusion in a new nanotechnology index launched by San Francisco-based Global Crown Capital LLC (GCC). The new index, The Global Crown Capital Nanotechnology Index, is a price-weighted index currently composed of 19 stocks that represent the emerging nanotechnology industry. The company says the index is designed to serve as an investment tool for professional investors. . . . Publicly traded nanobiotechnology research and development company Acrongenomics Inc. closed on its 1 million share private placement financing at $4 per share on Friday, Dec. 16. Acrongenomics says it will use the $4 million net proceeds for the ongoing development of the Nano-JETA molecular diagnostics technology platform as well as for general corporate purposes. . . . California-based research companies Affymetrix Inc. and Applied Biosystems Group announced that Applera now has a non-exclusive, worldwide license to a number of Affymetrix's gene expression analysis patents. The companies say the license will allow the continued expansion of Applied Biosystems' expression array system for high-density microarray analysis and will enable customers to use that system for gene expression, research and development purposes. Details of the license were not disclosed.