Company Announcements

Affymetrix has contributed genotyping data for a large set of validated rare and common genetic variants to the 1000 Genomes Project. It has also released a larger data set of approximately five million variants on its website.

In January, Affymetrix signed a distribution agreement with Fisher Scientific for its GeneAtlas System and related consumables for the US and Canada.

In November 2010, Agilent appointed Beckman Coulter Genomics a Certified Service Provider of its SureSelect Target Enrichment System.

Roche Diagnostics and CapitalBio signed a memo of understanding in November 2010 to initiate a strategic partnership focused on furthering microarray technologies and complementary products for molecular diagnostic applications. The partnership includes R&D and applications of the Roche NimbleGen microarray workflow in preventative and personalized diagnostics, as well as marketing and the establishment of educational facilities across China.

Oxford Gene Technology granted Biotype Diagnostics a license to its patents for the detection of DNA sequence variations.

Aushon Biosystems partnered with China’s LightArray Biotech for biomarker testing services.

Aushon Biosystems signed a letter of intent for a diagnostic development collaboration with Peking University Cancer Hospital to develop predictive diagnostics markers for liver metastases of colorectal cancer and stratification biomarkers for radio-chemotherapy patients.

Product Introductions

Gentel Biosciences introduced the APiX Simian Pathogen Array to screen for specific antibodies to pathogens in the sera of nonhuman primates.

Agilent launched the SurePrint G3 Exon Microarrays, which enable researchers to identify both gene-level and exon-level expression changes in a single experiment.

Toray Industries released in Europe in November 2010 the 3D-Gene* range of three-dimensional DNA chips. Probes are attached to three-dimensional microcolumns on the chip surface. The chips are compatible with available scanning methods.

Exiqon launched its sixth generation of miRCURY LNA miRNA Arrays for expression profiling, which can detect down to ten copies of miRNA from a biological sample.

In January, Illumina introduced the next generation of iSelect custom genotyping products for designing custom arrays containing from 3,000 to one million markers and with the flexibility to add supplemental content.

Affymetrix released the Axiom Genome-Wide BOS 1 Array for bovine genotyping, developed in conjunction with the Affymetrix Bovine Consortium.

Affymetrix launched the GeneChip Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array.