Affymetrix Control Program Advances Association Studies and Saves Researchers Time and Money; World's Largest Population Geneti
August 02 2006 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) announced today that it is
collaborating with leading researchers around the world as part of
the Affymetrix Control Program. The program will provide free,
public access to control cohort data for whole-genome association
studies using Affymetrix GeneChip(R) genotyping arrays.
Participating organizations include GlaxoSmithKline, the National
Genome Research Network (NGFN) in Germany, Erasmus MC in the
Netherlands, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the Centre
National de Genotypage in France and the Wellcome Trust Case
Control Consortium (WTCCC) in the UK. Genotype data from more than
12,000 samples is in the process of being committed to this unique
project, which will make this the world's largest population
genetics resource. Use of appropriate control data can reduce the
number of control samples required. Researchers can also add age-
and sex-matched controls from similar ethnic backgrounds as their
cases to increase the genetic power of their current studies. The
data on 9,000 samples will be released through the National Center
for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) over the next few months to
qualified scientific investigators. In addition, control data from
1,500 samples from the 1958 British Birth Cohort and 1,500
consented blood donors of the UK Blood Services will be released by
the WTCCC to qualified scientific investigators. The WTCCC data
will be linked to and from the NCBI database. For more information
on the WTCCC control data, please visit www.wtccc.org.uk. "The
NCBI's mission is to serve as a public repository for data to help
advance scientific research," said Steve Sherry, Ph.D., staff
scientist at NCBI. "We are pleased to partner in this program, to
not only to distribute the data, but more importantly, to help
ensure that they are as useful as possible in benefiting the public
health." "The database will enable researchers from both academia
and the pharmaceutical industry to gain a better understanding of
population stratification, and how to correct for it when
performing large-scale association studies or pharmacogenomics
studies," said Professor Stefan Schreiber M.D., one of the two
speakers of the NGFN in Germany and researcher from the
Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany. "The NGFN will
provide almost 3,000 control datasets with the two population
collections, popgen and KORA-gen. A multinational team of
researchers, organized by Professor Michael Krawczak, Ph.D., and
his University colleague Professor Schreiber, are collaborating to
create a genetic map of Europe as part of the Affymetrix Control
Program. The group is analyzing data to discover markers that could
be used to identify different genetic sub-populations on the
continent. To watch a two-part Affymetrix UserForum interview with
Professors Schreiber and Krawczak, please visit:
http://www.affymetrix.com/userGroup/news/collaborations/schreiber.html
"We have almost finished typing 1,800 samples from the KORA-gen
population (www.gsf.de/kora-gen) that will go into the Affymetrix
Control Database," said Professor Thomas Meitinger, M.D., director
of the Institute of Human Genetics at the GSF - Forschungszentrum
fur Umwelt und Gesundheit and member of the NGFN in Germany. "We
have started genotyping cases from several diseases for
investigators who will use the KORA-gen data as controls." "We plan
to also make our control sample from KORA-gen available in
association with P3G (www.p3gconsortium.org), the public population
project in genomics," said Professor Erich Wichmann, M.D., Ph.D.,
GSF Institute of Epidemiology and head of the KORA study.
Affymetrix continues to look for more eligible samples and
anticipates that an additional 5,000 to 10,000 samples will be
added to this control program over the next year. A sample will be
eligible for the controls program if it represents the general
population or a control population, and was not selected for having
a particular disease phenotype. "We plan on expanding the
Affymetrix control program to include data from populations around
the world to better support the broad spectrum of sample types used
for genetic studies," said Tom Willis, Ph.D., vice president, DNA
Marketing at Affymetrix. "This program, which consists of half a
million SNPs across thousands of individuals, will complement the
database constructed by the International HapMap Project that
included four million SNPs across 210 individuals. It will serve to
increase the genetic discovery power for all customers using our
whole-genome association products." To watch the two-part UserForum
interview featuring Greg Marcus, Ph.D., senior product manager, DNA
Analysis at Affymetrix, please visit:
http://www.affymetrix.com/userGroup/analysis/software/marcus.html
About Affymetrix Affymetrix scientists invented the world's first
high-density microarray in 1989 and began selling the first
commercial microarray in 1994. Since then, Affymetrix GeneChip(R)
technology has become the industry standard in molecular biology
research. Affymetrix technology is used by the world's top
pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology companies as well as
leading academic, government and not-for-profit research
institutes. More than 1,400 systems have been installed around the
world and nearly 4,000 peer-reviewed papers have been published
using the technology. Affymetrix' patented photolithographic
manufacturing process provides the most information capacity
available today on an array, enabling researchers to use a
whole-genome approach to analyzing the relationship between
genetics and health. Affymetrix is headquartered in Santa Clara,
Calif., with manufacturing facilities in Sacramento, Calif., and
Bedford, Mass. The company maintains important sales and marketing
operations in Europe and Asia and has about 1,100 employees
worldwide. For more information about Affymetrix, please visit the
company's website at www.affymetrix.com. All statements in this
press release that are not historical are "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act as amended, including statements regarding Affymetrix'
"expectations," "beliefs," "hopes," "intentions," "strategies," or
the like. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially for Affymetrix
from those projected, including, but not limited to: uncertainties
relating to the commercial and technological success of the 500K
Array Set Control Program discussed in this press release; risks of
the Company's ability to achieve and sustain higher levels of
revenue, higher gross margins, reduced operating expenses;
uncertainties relating to technological approaches, manufacturing,
product development; personnel retention; uncertainties related to
cost and pricing of Affymetrix products; dependence on
collaborative partners; uncertainties relating to sole source
suppliers; uncertainties relating to FDA and other regulatory
approvals; competition; risks relating to intellectual property of
others and the uncertainties of patent protection and litigation.
These and other risk factors are discussed in Affymetrix' Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2005, and other SEC reports,
including its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for subsequent
quarterly periods. Affymetrix expressly disclaims any obligation or
undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any
forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change
in Affymetrix' expectations with regard thereto or any change in
events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements
are based. NOTE: Affymetrix, the Affymetrix logo, and GeneChip are
registered trademarks owned or used by Affymetrix Inc.
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