Illumina Signs SNP Genotyping Agreement With the University of Cambridge, UK; BeadArray Technology Will Help Correlate SNP Genotypes With Diabetes
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2002--Illumina, Inc. announced today that it has signed a commercial agreement with the University of Cambridge (UK) to provide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping services on a sample collection provided by the University's Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), which houses the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Wellcome Trust funded Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (JDRF/WT DIL). Under the terms of the agreement, Illumina will design functional assays for the SNP loci provided by CIMR, and then use its BeadArray(TM) technology to genotype specified SNPs in the set of roughly 3000 samples. Further details about the agreement were not disclosed.
Researchers at the JDRF/WT DIL have already contributed to the discovery of three of the genes associated with type 1 (autoimmune inflammatory insulin-dependent) diabetes. The Institute aims to further understand the functional consequences of disease-associated variants and identify additional genes in the search for therapeutic opportunities based on disease mechanism and genotype.
Jay Flatley, Illumina President & CEO, noted, "The University's JDRF/WT DIL has helped pioneer the approach of integrating molecular medicine techniques with genetics, bioinformatics, and microarray technologies to improve investigative outcomes. We're pleased that the JDRF/WT DIL will be evaluating our technology and leveraging the speed and throughput of our BeadArray technology to further its diabetes research."
Organizations such as the University of Cambridge and its CIMR are expanding the scale of research devoted to identifying and studying genetic variations (SNPs), the frequency of which may vary between normal and diseased individuals thereby implicating specific genes and pathways in disease, which may point the way to improved diagnostic and therapeutic development.
The diabetes research efforts of CIMR investigators are systematically integrated and facilitated by a special partnership of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Wellcome Trust (http://www-gene.cimr.cam.ac.uk/todd/; www.jdrf.org; www.wellcome.ac.uk).
Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN; www.illumina.com) is developing next-generation tools that permit large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. The Company's proprietary BeadArray(TM) technology can provide the throughput, cost effectiveness and flexibility necessary to enable researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries to perform the billions of tests necessary to extract medically valuable information from advances in genomics and proteomics. Illumina's technology will have applicability across a wide variety of industries beyond life sciences and pharmaceuticals, including agriculture, food, chemicals and petrochemicals. |
