Center for Inherited Disease Research Adds Affymetrix Platform for Large-Scale Genotyping Services

Affymetrix Inc. has announced that the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) has adopted its Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 for large-scale genotyping and copy number projects.

CIDR is making Affymetrix-based genotyping available to supporting members of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The first study to take advantage of this new CIDR offering is a NIDDK-funded project to identify the genetic causes of type 2 diabetes in African-Americans.

Donald W. Bowden, Ph.D. is director of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Diabetes Center and the principal investigator of the study. His team will examine more than 2,200 samples in its first phase.

“The combination of the expertise at CIDR and the SNP and copy number content of the Affymetrix platform will enable us to maximize the data from our samples to uncover the true genetic causes of diseases like type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Bowden.

Dr. Bowden added: “In particular, the SNP Array 6.0 is the only platform to offer comprehensive coverage of both common genetic variation and structural variation across different ethnicities, enabling us to better understand the genetic components of specific diseases affecting African-Americans. We hope that our work serves as an example to investigators worldwide so that we can better understand the role of genes and genetic variants in complex diseases.”

Affymetrix genome-wide mapping arrays have been used in three other recent groundbreaking studies on genetic associations for diabetes, in which researchers are using the technology to discover genes connected to type 2 diabetes in both Nordic and Parsi populations.

“Affymetrix is excited that another proven leader in genetic research like CIDR has adopted our microarray platform. We look forward to working with the team at CIDR on a number of innovative research projects that will explore the genetic links to many widespread illnesses,” said Kevin King, president of Affymetrix.

“Because of its superior performance, the Affymetrix SNP Array 6.0 continues to propel researchers towards a clearer understanding of common diseases like type 2 diabetes,” King said.

The Affymetrix SNP Array 6.0 is a single microarray that simultaneously measures more than 1.8 million markers for genetic variation. The array is designed to enable researchers to perform the most powerful whole-genome association and copy number studies ever by genotyping more markers across more individuals at a lower cost per sample.