Oxford, UK, May 21, 2009 – Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), the pioneer of microarraybased

technologies, has successfully completed processing more than 20,000 samples that

have been generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), the world’s

largest CNV study involving a collaboration of 24 leading human geneticists. The project

analysed DNA samples from patients to identify genetic variants that play a role in various

human diseases, including bipolar disorder, Crohn’s disease, coronary artery disease, type 1

and 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer and hypertension.

OGT processed over 20,000 samples in 20 weeks, using state-of-the-art automated

processing to achieve exceptional data quality from whole-genome human CNV-focussed

microarrays developed by Agilent. Over 40 quality control checks have been performed and

recorded for each sample during the workflow, producing documented evidence of the

excellent QC metrics that have been met.

“In order to characterise genetic variants, reproducible performance and reliable processing

of the high resolution microarrays is essential. This project demanded high quality data

generated to tight deadlines, and we were very pleased with its rapid progress,” said Dr Matt

Hurles of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. “Our preliminary estimate is that approximately

20-30 % of the ~11,000 loci targeted on the array we have designed are both polymorphic in

our British study population and provide sufficient data quality to assign integer copy numbers

to individuals.”

“OGT is delighted to have successfully processed the huge number of samples, on time and

to exacting QC standards, in this landmark CNV study,” said Dr John Anson, R&D Director at

OGT. OGT is committed to provide high quality data for a variety of high throughput

microarray applications, offering a bespoke microarray service from array design and

synthesis through to bioinformatics support and data analysis.