Illumina Initiates Shipment of Whole-Genome Genotyping BeadChips
Tuesday June 28, 6:00 am ET
Exon-Centric BeadChip and New Infinium(TM) Assay Enable Industry-Leading Performance and Data Quality for Disease Association Studies
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2005--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - News) announced today that it has begun commercial shipment of its Sentrix® Human-1 Genotyping BeadChip. Powered by the Company's proprietary Infinium(TM) assay, the new Human-1 BeadChip can interrogate over 100,000 SNP loci per sample. Over 70% of the SNP markers reside in or near genes, delivering higher information value per locus than any other commercially available whole-genome genotyping array.
Source: Illumina, Inc.
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This SNP content strategy is made possible by Illumina's revolutionary Infinium assay, the industry's only genotyping method to offer virtually unconstrained locus selection and infinitely scalable assay multiplexing. As a result of this flexibility, the Infinium assay (see Note) enables genotyping of large numbers of SNPs in genes and highly conserved regions of the genome. SNPs in and near genes provide the most informative content for associating genetic variation with disease.
The Infinium assay protocol features single-tube DNA amplification and eliminates PCR and ligation steps, significantly reducing labor and potential sample-handling errors. Based on analysis of validated HapMap samples, Infinium genotyping with the Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip yields high call rates (99.40%), reproducibility (99.99%) and accuracy (99.99%) as measured by Mendelian consistencies -- critical performance metrics in large-scale disease association studies.
The Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip and companion Infinium assay have undergone evaluation at research centers in both North America and Europe. Spain's CIC bioGUNE (Centro de Investigacion Cooperativa en Biociencias) has been collecting statistical data on Basque family trios. "We've genotyped samples and replicates with the Human-1 BeadChip," stated Dr. Ana Aransay, an investigator in CIC's Functional Genomics unit, "and generated data that was really quite impressive and remarkably consistent. Accuracy was extremely high, and reproducibility approached 100%."
The Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip and Infinium assay are part of an integrated whole-genome genotyping solution that includes reagents, a BeadArray Reader, powerful allele-calling software, and installation and training. Illumina offers the Infinium assay with manual protocols or with full, walk-away automation. For existing BeadStation system customers, the Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip is read by current instruments and requires only minor software and equipment upgrades. Customers may purchase an optional liquid-handling robot for automated sample preparation.
The University of Southern California (USC) has also tested Sentrix whole-genome genotyping arrays on the Illumina BeadStation system. Christopher Haiman, Sc.D., an investigator at USC's Keck School of Medicine, characterized the Infinium assay as "very robust and very simple to perform." "We were able to quickly master the streamlined steps of the protocol and begin generating genotypes," stated Haiman. "We anticipate saving significant time and labor as we begin deploying the new BeadChip and Infinium assay for large genetics studies, and we plan to take advantage of the automation option to increase sample throughput even further."
The Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip extends a growing portfolio of genotyping solutions from Illumina. The Company offers whole-genome, focused, and custom SNP content. Content is deployed on one of two bead-based array platforms -- the Array Matrix and the BeadChip -- and supported by two high-performance genotyping protocols: the Infinium assay and the GoldenGate® assay.
"Our new exon-centric Human-1 BeadChip and Infinium assay deliver high information content and ease of use to geneticists," remarked Jay Flatley. "These offerings again underscore the power and flexibility of BeadArray(TM) technology." Flatley added, "With the help of collaborators, we have already completed SNP selection for a 250K BeadChip featuring TagSNP content from the HapMap Project. Many of the TagSNP assays were developed on the Illumina platform, so we expect to be able to quickly deploy these assays and introduce follow-on whole-genotyping products over the next several quarters."
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 -- now used in leading genome centers around the world -- 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. For additional detail on the new Sentrix BeadChips and Infinium Assay for whole-genome genotyping, visit www.illumina.com/infinium . |
