Affymetrix & BGI Enter Strategic Collaboration to Co-Develop & Commercialize Genomic Microarrays for the Agricultural Community
January 13 2012 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX), announced today that it has
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BGI, the world’s
largest genomics organization, to enter into a strategic
co-development and co-marketing collaboration. The non-exclusive
partnership will aim to develop and commercialize a portfolio of
plant, crop, and livestock microarrays for genotyping analysis,
spanning applications such as marker-assisted trait selection,
parentage, quality control, and traceability.
The global agricultural community will benefit from this
partnership through cost-effective and high-throughput solutions
that leverage BGI’s vast catalog of high-quality sequencing data
and bioinformatics analyses from plant, crop, and livestock genomes
and Affymetrix’ expertise as a leader in microarray technology. The
collaboration will provide scientists with access to a broad range
of well-annotated and inter- and intra-species bio-diverse genomic
markers from the 1000 Plant and Animal Reference Genomes Project,
initiated by BGI in 2010.
"We are pleased to be working with BGI to expand the use of
molecular tools in agriculture," said Dr. Frank Witney, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Affymetrix. "This is a fast
developing field that is key to accelerating critical discoveries
that will improve the yield and nutritional value of food and feed
around the globe.”
“The combination of BGI’s next-generation sequencing platforms,
bioinformatics capabilities and sequencing database, and
Affymetrix’ advanced genotyping technology will help advance the
application of genomic selection to scientists seeking to improve
outcomes in breeding plants, crops, and livestock,” said Dr. Jun
Wang, Executive Director of BGI. “We look forward to making plant
and animal sequencing data more widely available to the global
agricultural community.”
About BGI
BGI was founded in Beijing, China in 1999, with the mission of
being a premier scientific partner to the global research
community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science
highly accessible through its investment in infrastructure that
leverages the best available technology, economies of scale, and
expert bioinformatics resources.
BGI, and its affiliates, BGI Americas, based in Cambridge, MA
and BGI Europe, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, have established
partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and
government research institutions as well as global biotechnology
and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease,
agricultural, environmental, and related applications. BGI has
established a proven track record of excellence, delivering results
with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high profile
research that has generated more than 170 publications in top-tier
journals such as Nature and Science. For additional information
about BGI, please visit www.genomics.cn or www.bgiamericas.com.
About Affymetrix
Affymetrix technology is used by the world's top pharmaceutical,
diagnostic, and biotechnology companies as well as leading
academic, government, and nonprofit research institutes. More than
2,100 systems have been shipped around the world, and more than
23,500 peer-reviewed papers have been published using the
technology. Affymetrix is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and
has manufacturing facilities in Santa Clara, Cleveland, Ohio, and
Singapore. The company has about 900 employees worldwide and
maintains sales and distribution operations across Europe, Asia,
and Latin America. For more information about Affymetrix, please
visit http://www.affymetrix.com.
Forward-looking statements
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. These and
other risk factors are discussed in Affymetrix' Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2010, and other SEC reports for subsequent
quarterly periods.
NOTE: Affymetrix, and the Affymetrix logo, are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Affymetrix, Inc.
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