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Biotech / Medical : Illumina (ILMN) Optics for Genomics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mopgcw who wrote (114)	3/18/2005 4:54:15 AM
From: mopgcw	Respond to of 276

Illumina Announces Worldwide Availability of Multi-Sample, Genome-Wide Expression Microarrays Tuesday March 15, 6:00 am ET Arrays to Set New Standards for Price and Quality in Genomic Research SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2005--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - News) announced today that it has begun shipment of two Sentrix® BeadChips that, for the first time ever, enable whole-genome and RefSeq-based expression profiling of multiple samples on the same microarray. The new expression offerings, which have undergone extensive testing at customer locations, deliver high sensitivity, throughput and ease of use for gene discovery, pathway research and molecular characterization of disease. With pricing as low as $100 per sample, the new BeadChips are expected to dramatically reduce the cost of genome-wide expression analysis and allow researchers to expand the scale of biological experimentation. ADVERTISEMENT The Burnham Institute (San Diego) has been using Sentrix arrays to profile human embryonic stem (ES) cells and to learn how changes in gene expression control the ability of ES cells to develop into any cell type in the body -- a characteristic called pluripotence. Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., an investigator at The Burnham, reports that "Illumina's multi-sample approach has allowed us to perform the large-scale experiments necessary to identify a set of genes that regulates the maintenance of pluripotence. These data are the basis for a worldwide consortium on human embryonic stem cell characterization, which we believe will speed the development of these cells for clinical therapy." The Sentrix Human-6 BeadChip is designed to analyze six discrete human RNA samples on one chip, interrogating in each sample over 46,000 transcripts from the human genome. The Human-6 BeadChip contains over 10 million features. A companion product, the Sentrix HumanRef-8 BeadChip, can query eight samples in parallel against 23,000 transcripts derived from genes represented in the consensus RefSeq database, a well-characterized whole-genome subset used broadly in genetic analysis. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has also tested Sentrix genome-wide expression arrays on the Illumina BeadStation. Cordelia Langford, Ph.D., Head of the Sanger Institute Microarray Facility, said that "Once familiar with the technology, we were impressed by the high reproducibility of the chips as well as the low sample requirement, labeling and labor costs involved in their use." The new Sentrix BeadChips are part of a complete gene expression portfolio from Illumina that includes both genome-wide and focused-content arrays as well as powerful assays like the recently introduced DASL(TM) assay, which enables high-multiplex expression profiling of partially degraded RNAs such as those found in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. Illumina plans to release whole-genome expression products for mouse and rat before the end of the year. "The market has been looking forward to more sensitive and lower-cost solutions for gene expression analysis since the adoption of microarray methods," stated Jay Flatley, Illumina president and CEO. "Our new BeadChips extend Illumina's value proposition into whole-genome expression, allowing investigators to expand significantly their experimental scale, generate more meaningful data, and get that data at significantly lower cost. We're very excited to make our Sentrix genome-wide microarrays broadly available to the global life science community." 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 for genome-wide expression, visit www.illumina.com/GEX .