Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry to Use Illumina Whole-Genome Arrays for Large-Scale Genotyping Studies
Tuesday September 20, 6:00 am ET
Two-Phase Project to Evaluate 350,000 SNP Loci per Sample to Help Understand the Genetic Basis of Depression and Anxiety
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2005--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN - News) announced today that it has signed an agreement with the Max-Planck Institute (MPI) of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany to supply Sentrix® BeadChips and Infinium(TM) assay reagents for a large-scale genotyping study. The study will be performed by MPI's Center for Applied GenoTyping (CAGT) with two experimental goals: 1) to identify genetic variations that potentially predispose individuals to specific disorders such as depression and anxiety; and 2) further determine the impact of genetic variants on disease pathogenesis and response to psychotropic drugs.
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In the first phase of the project, the MPI researchers, headed by Professor Florian Holsboer, M.D., Ph.D., Institute Director, will genotype a large sample set using Illumina's Sentrix Human-1 BeadChip. Over 70% of the SNP markers in the Human-1 are located in or very near genes, enabling direct association of SNP markers with target disease phenotypes. The Project's second phase will use a new Sentrix BeadChip that can analyze over 250,000 TagSNPs derived from data generated by the International HapMap Project, for which Illumina is a Principal Investigator. The supplemental per-sample TagSNP markers will give MPI significant power to uncover and detect patterns of linkage disequilibrium and disease association.
"We expect this study, one of the largest ever undertaken by the Institute, to generate highly informative data on genetic variants specifically associated with depression and anxiety," asserted Dr. Holsboer. "Illumina's technology will help enable this scale of research, and we look forward to the day when our experimental data is translated into improved clinical approaches - at the Max Planck Institute as well as other psychiatric centers around the world."
Both of the Sentrix Genotyping BeadChips are driven by Illumina's Infinium assay protocols. The Infinium genotyping protocols enable the selection and analysis of virtually any SNP locus in the genome, providing coverage and multiplex levels that are limited only by the number of features on the BeadChip. Infinium performance, as measured by call rate, accuracy and reproducibility, is comparable to Illumina's GoldenGate® assay protocol, the gold standard of the International HapMap Project.
According to Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO, "MPI will be one of the first research institutions to benefit from the combined power of our two, genome-wide genotyping BeadChips. We're very pleased to be able to contribute to the Institute's groundbreaking research into the genetics of affective disorders like depression."
Illumina (www.illumina.com) is developing next-generation tools for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. The Company's proprietary BeadArray(TM) technology -- now used in leading genomics centers around the world -- provides 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. This information will help pave the way to personalized medicine by correlating genetic variation and gene function with particular disease states, enhancing drug discovery, allowing diseases to be detected earlier and more specifically, and permitting better choices of drugs for individual patients. |
