Affymetrix Releases Its Most Comprehensive Single Array For Genetic Studies
SNP Array 5.0 Makes High-Volume, Whole-Genome Association Studies More Affordable and Provides Researchers With High-Quality Data Faster Than Before
Santa Clara, CA - Affymetrix Inc. announced today the full commercial launch of its SNP Array 5.0, the company's most comprehensive single array for genetic studies. Researchers are currently using the SNP Array 5.0 to better identify and understand complex diseases such as autism, autoimmunity, bipolar disease, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
The Affymetrix SNP Array 5.0 features 500,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the original two-chip 500K Array Set, as well as more than 420,000 additional probes designed to measure other genetic differences, such as copy number variation. Compared to the 500K Array Set, the SNP Array 5.0 offers customers more than twice the genetic information per array and improves array processing time by more than 25 percent, all for the same price.
Nine high-volume customers have been using the SNP Array 5.0 as part of the product's limited commercial release. Scientists from the Autism Consortium, the Broad Institute and the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University have been using the SNP Array 5.0 to perform the most comprehensive genetic study on autism, which involves more than 5,000 samples.
"The new SNP Array 5.0 is quickly providing data of superior quality for half the previous effort," said Aravinda Chakravarti, Ph.D., Henry J. Knott Professor and director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. "The affordable price has translated into our examining a larger number of samples. The autism study, in particular, is one of the first beneficiaries of this new technology."
The Affymetrix SNP Array 5.0 was developed in collaboration with the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We believe that the future of whole-genome scanning must simultaneously query both SNP and copy number information in a single experiment," said Stacey Gabriel, Ph.D., director, National Center for Genotyping and Analysis at the Broad. "We are working towards both array-based laboratory methods and algorithmic improvements to make this possible."
"Although we observed highly concordant data between the Affymetrix SNP Array 5.0 and the 500K Array Set, we found the new SNP Array 5.0 to consistently achieve a higher call rate and require less than half the hands-on time for processing," said Shawn Levy, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "Not only is there time savings in the single hybridization compared to two hybridizations, but the overall protocol is more streamlined and efficient."
"For the past 15 years, Affymetrix has been committed to providing our customers with the required tools for the genetic studies that they wish to perform," said Sean George, Ph.D., vice president of the Academic Business Unit at Affymetrix. "We are constantly refining and enhancing our product portfolio to enable the power of genetic studies to be realized in larger and larger sample cohorts by delivering more genetic content at more affordable prices. The SNP Array 5.0 is a great example of this continued innovation."
The SNP Array 5.0 is the most recent addition to Affymetrix' line of genotyping products, including the 10K, 100K and 500K Arrays, which are all based on the proven Whole-Genome Sampling Assay. This technology is being used by more than 200 laboratories and has generated data for more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Affymetrix continues to work with scientists from the Broad Institute on the design of the higher-density SNP Array 6.0, which is scheduled to launch later this year. This product is expected to measure more than 1 million SNP and copy number variations across the genome.
SOURCE: Affymetrix Inc.