First in a family of products that will enable scientists to begin large-scale whole-genome association studies, which up to now have been unaffordable or impractical
Affymetrix says that its new GeneChip Mapping 100K array set is now broadly available through an early technology access programme.
This two-microarray set can genotype over 100,000 SNPs and is the first in a family of products that will enable scientists to begin large-scale whole-genome association studies, which up to now have been unaffordable or impractical.
The 100K, which Affymetrix plans to formally launch this summer, is already being used in high-density genome scans and genome-wide association studies of the genetics of complex diseases and drug response.
Twelve customers, including leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and leading academic researchers, have started experiments under the initial phase of the programme, which is now expanding.
"We were amazed at how quickly we could generate highly accurate genotype calls," said Peter Nurnberg, head of the gene mapping centre at the Max Delbruck centre for molecular medicine in Berlin-Buch and coordinator of the National Genotyping Platform of Germany.
"The 100K is a significant step to allow whole genome association studies. "We anticipate the 100K will have a significant impact on our research in the field of complex diseases and beyond". In a pharmacogenomic study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, researchers at the Mayo Clinic are using the 100K to investigate the genetic basis for differential responses to antihypertensive drugs in different patients and populations. By taking a whole-genome association approach to these studies, these scientists hope to identify the unknown genes influencing drug-response and to ultimately enable more effective tailoring of antihypertensive therapy in individual patients.
The 100K is the newest member of the Affymetrix DNA analysis product line, which includes comparative sequencing, custom genotyping, and whole genome SNP microarrays.
The 100K uses the same GeneChip technology that revolutionised mRNA gene expression analysis, enabling researchers to understand both the function and variation of whole genomes on a single, integrated platform.
The 100K builds on the innovative, scalable, easy to use assay that Affymetrix pioneered with the GeneChip Mapping 10K array.
The 100K allows researchers to genotype over 100,000 SNPs using just two reactions.
Previously, genotyping 100,000 SNPs would have required 100,000 PCR reactions, a hurdle that made this kind of research impractical.
Before the advent of 100K, the commercial product for genotyping the most SNPs was Affymetrix's Mapping 10K.
"The power of 100,000 SNPs in a single experiment is enabling researchers to attempt unprecedented genetic studies at a genome-wide scale," said Greg Yap, senior marketing director, DNA analysis.
"The GeneChip Mapping 100K Set is the first in a family of products that will enable scientists to identify genes associated with disease or drug response across the whole genome instead of just studying previously known SNPs or genes, and to study complex real-world populations instead of simple ones.
"To do this, we are making large-scale SNP genotyping not only quick and easy, but also affordable - about one cent per SNP".
About half of the SNPs on the 100K set are from public databases, while the other half are from the SNP database discovered by Perlegen Sciences. All of the SNPs on the 100K set are freely available and have been released into the public domain.
Because the assays and arrays used in the 100K set are extremely scalable, more SNPs from both public sources and the Perlegen database will be added to next generation arrays.
