Illumina Completes Installation of Production-Scale SNP Genotyping BeadLab at the Whitehead Institute
Businesswire, Monday, September 15, 2003 at 15:12
SAN DIEGO, Sep 15, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
BeadArray Technology to Serve as Core Platform for Genotyping Research
Programs at the New Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) announced today that it has completed installation and acceptance testing of its SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genotyping BeadLab at the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research (WICGR) in Cambridge, MA. The BeadLab will be used for large-scale genotyping projects -- including HapMap Project work -- that will provide the fundamental information necessary to understand the molecular basis of disease. The Whitehead BeadLab purchase agreement was first announced on July 8, but the Institute's identity was not disclosed at that time.
The BeadLab is built around Illumina's proprietary BeadArray(TM) technology and features high sample throughput, unprecedented array multiplex levels, LIMS (laboratory information management system) control, automated allele-calling software, low running cost per SNP scored and industry-leading performance."High throughput SNP genotyping is a powerful tool to connect emerging knowledge of the human genome with clinically important endpoints,"said David Altshuler, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Medical and Population Genetics at WICGR, and Assistant Professor of Genetics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Stacey Gabriel, Ph.D., who directs the Whitehead's contribution to the HapMap project, continued,"In our evaluations the Illumina platform delivered an extremely impressive combination of sample throughput, cost, genotyping accuracy and completeness."The BeadLab installed at the WICGR is intended to be an important technology for the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute. Announced in mid-June, the Broad Institute is a collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University Whitehead Institute, and Harvard Hospitals, with the shared mission of developing genomic tools and pioneering their application to medicine.
The Broad Institute will be directed by Eric Lander, Ph.D., Founder and Director of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research, who characterized Illumina's BeadLab as"the type of technology needed to accelerate our understanding of disease etiology and apply this understanding to clinical medicine."Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO, commented,"We look forward to working closely with Eric, David, Stacey and their incredibly talented research teams to help further the course of progress in biomedical research and human health."Illumina (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 provides the throughput, cost effectiveness and flexibility 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. This information will help pave the way to personalized medicine.
The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (www.wi.mit.edu/who/who.html) is a non-profit, independent research and educational institution with pathfinding programs in cancer and AIDS research, structural biology, genetics, infectious disease research, developmental biology, and transgenic science. Its mission is two-fold: improve human health and welfare and extend the boundaries of knowledge for future generations. The Whitehead is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in its teaching activities but wholly independent in its governance, finances, and research programs."Safe Harbor"Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are Illumina's ability to fully develop its BeadArray and Oligator technologies, the Company's ability to successfully build international sales and support organizations to install and service its laboratory facilities at customer locations, the Company's ability to develop and deploy new applications for its platform technology, and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. Illumina disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.
Editor's Note -- Illumina first announced the Whitehead Institute BeadLab purchase agreement on July 8, 2003, but did not disclose the Institute's identity at that time. Year to date, Illumina has signed five BeadLab agreements and has completed installations at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Genome Quebec, and Johns Hopkins University in addition to the just completed installation at the Whitehead Institute. The fifth such agreement was signed with Shanghai, China's National Center for Biochip Technology. |
