By Maggie Hartford A company which pioneered modern DNA testing has been bought by US company Orchid BioSciences.

Cellmark Diagnostics, set up by ICI in 1987 to commercialise work by Sir Alec Jeffrey at Leicester University, was one of the world's first commercial DNA testing laboratories. Based at Abingdon Business Park, it pioneered the introduction of DNA testing for paternity and forensics analyses in the UK. It was awarded the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1990 and was the first DNA testing laboratory in the world to be accredited to International Quality Standard ISO9002.

Orchid, based in Princeton, was set up by Don Marvin and Dale Pfost, who for eight years was chief executive of Abingdon-based Oxford Glycosciences. He built the Oxford University spin-off company up from two employees to a workforce of 80 before leaving to become involved in spin-offs from Stanford University.

Orchid has developed new ways of searching for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genetic variations among groups of individuals.

Dr Pfost said: "Orchid is committed to rapidly expanding our presence in Europe, and Cellmark provides an ideal base enabling us to accelerate this process.

"Cellmark's expertise, experienced staff and well-equipped, accredited facilities should provide a strong foundation for growing Orchid's position as a leading provider of value-added SNP scoring."