Agilent Joins Forces with Baylor College of Medicine

Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced it is collaborating with Baylor College of Medicine's Medical Genetics Laboratories to provide customized CGH (comparative genomics hybridization) microarrays to researchers worldwide. Six new microarray designs unite the power of Baylor's data-rich expertise in genetics research with Agilent's microarray manufacturing capabilities to enable advanced discoveries in cancer and cytogenetics research. The collaboration announcement was delivered at the American Society of Human Genetics conference in Boston last month.

"Designing arrays of this complexity has been an enormous effort at Baylor College of Medicine, and we are excited to partner with Agilent to share the designs with laboratories in the U.S. and internationally," said T. Brandon Perthuis, director of business development at the BCM Medical Genetic Laboratories.

"Originally focused on micro-deletions and micro-duplications, our current designs have been continually improved over the past 10 years and are now highly robust, with the ability to detect exon-level deletions and duplications," he said. "Our exon array targets approximately 1,700 genes and includes probes used for SNP analysis for the detection of AOH and UPD [absence of heterozygosity and uniparental disomy]."

"After years of intense study, we are proud to join with Baylor-a global leader in cancer and cytogenetics research-to provide researchers with these powerful new tools for disease research," said Jacob Thaysen, vice president and general manager for Agilent's Diagnostics and Genomics business.

Agilent manufactures a broad selection of microarrays for genome-wide measurement of gene expression and for comparative genomics hybridization, as well as SureFISH, a highly specific and sensitive product line for oligonucleotide fluorescent in situ hybridization. The company's human genome CGH microarrays are available in multiple formats with bundling options available.