Illumina Signs Multi-Million Dollar Agreement with the University of Virginia and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Illumina, Inc. has announced that it has agreed to process more than 6,500 samples for researchers of the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) via its FastTrack Genotyping Services.

With financial support from the NIDDK, the T1DGC will attempt to identify genes that influence an individual's risk for developing type 1 diabetes. Principal Investigator Stephen Rich, Ph.D., from the University of Virginia and Chair of the T1DGC Steering Committee has chosen to use Illumina's recently launched HumanHap550-Duo BeadChip for the study.

"Illumina's technology meets the University of Virginia's needs in terms of data quality, call rates, and genomic coverage, and we think that provides us with the most potential for discovering variants linked to complex disease, like type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Stephen Rich, Director, Center for Public Health Genomics at the University of Virginia.

"The ultimate goal of this project is gene identification. Once these genes have been identified, researchers can then use this information to develop better approaches to detecting, treating, and preventing the disease."

According to Beena Akolkar, Ph.D., Program Director, Immunopathogenesis and Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes at the NIDDK, "The tools and technologies now available to conduct genome-wide association studies are very powerful and have revolutionized the genetics field, leading to an explosion of gene identification in various complex diseases. We look forward to making significant progress in finding all the genes that contribute to susceptibility in type 1 diabetes."

"One of the strengths of our FastTrack Genotyping Services is our ability to collaborate with customers through every step of their project - from SNP selection through study completion. We believe that this approach helps our customers achieve their scientific goals as rapidly as possible," said Marc Laurent, Director of Commercial Services. "NIDDK's contract with Illumina reflects the confidence and trust their scientists are placing in the quality of our technology and support for genotyping services."