SEQUENOM Generates Industry's Largest Portfolio of Working SNP Assays
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SEQUENOM(TM), Inc. (Nasdaq: SQNM - news), a discovery genetics company, today announced that it has established a portfolio of nearly 400,000 distinct and immediately usable single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assays, extracted from the Company's database of 1.9 million designed SNP assays. The Company believes that this portfolio represents a SNP assay map with the highest density in the industry, enabling a new level of genetic studies across the human genome. These SNP assays are supported by confirmation data and allele frequency data in reference populations, including four distinct ethnic groups. The portfolio is now commercially available from SEQUENOM, offered along with oligonucleotides quality controlled by the Company's MassARRAY(TM) technology, and will be made available online in April at the Company's website, RealSNP.com(TM).
Initial customers of this product offering already include GlaxoSmithKline plc, which has acquired a license to use the public domain SNP assays from the portfolio for internal research and development. SEQUENOM's SNP assay portfolio is the result of several internal projects, including a collaboration with leading genomic information company Incyte Genomics, Inc. Assays specifically developed from Incyte's internal portfolio of proprietary gene-based SNPs are now commercially available to Incyte and SEQUENOM customers.
``SEQUENOM has generated what we believe to be the industry's largest portfolio of working SNP assays,'' said Toni Schuh, Ph.D., SEQUENOM's President and Chief Executive Officer. ``While competitive programs are ongoing, we have targeted the highest mark and believe we are the first to accomplish the goal we set. This is yet another testament to the speed and efficiency of our MassARRAY technology and assay development process. This high density SNP map gives SEQUENOM and our customers a distinct competitive advantage.''
Charles Cantor, Ph.D., SEQUENOM's Chief Scientific Officer, added, ``Our portfolio of nearly 400,000 distinct and immediately usable SNP assays represents, for the first time, a SNP map with enough density to perform the type of high resolution full genome screens that we envision. Combined with the power of our MassARRAY genotyping platform, we are creating whole-genome linkage disequilibrium maps within several populations. These maps will facilitate the rapid discovery of genes involved in common diseases and pharmacogenetics.''... |
