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Illumina Shipps HumanHap300 BeadChips
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Illumina, Inc. has announced that it has begun commercial shipment of the Sentrix® HumanHap300 Genotyping BeadChip to customers around the world.
Enabled by the Company's Infinium™ assay method, each BeadChip is designed to analyze over 317,000 high-value SNP loci per sample.
Content is derived principally from so-called "tagSNPs" identified and validated in the International HapMap Project, which was completed in October 2005.
Illumina claims that, the BeadChip offers comprehensive genomic coverage and data quality of any product currently available and is expected to become an important discovery tool for researchers seeking to understand the genetic basis of common, yet complex diseases.
TagSNPs deliver statistical value to geneticists because they serve as "proxies" for larger groups of SNPs, called haplotypes, which are inherited together.
Researchers can analyze human populations comprehensively and efficiently by examining between 250,000 and 500,000 tagSNPs instead of the entire set of roughly 10 million SNPs.
The Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany has evaluated the product offering for use in the second phase of a large-scale study designed to identify genetic variants associated with depression and anxiety.
According to Thomas Bettecken, M.D., Head of MPI's Center for Applied GenoTyping (CAGT), "We have observed quite remarkable data quality using manual processing methods and without taking advantage of options for automated sample preparation and labeling."
"To date, we have achieved average per-sample call rates that exceed 99.5%, with reproducibility and Mendelian inheritance factors both over 99.9%."
"These compelling metrics allow us to generate high-confidence results with fewer samples, less effort and time, and lower costs than alternative approaches."
"We've evaluated the HumanHap300 BeadChip prior to using the product for a large-scale pilot association study," stated Kimberly Doheny, Ph.D., Director of the Genotyping Laboratory at the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR).
"The new BeadChip and Infinium assay workflows integrate readily into our BeadLab environment," Doheny added.
"The streamlined assay protocol is robust and easy to perform, without the need for multiple sample transfer steps that increase the risk of errors."
"We value the ability to generate high-quality results using a product that includes fully supported automation protocols and quality-controlled reagents."
The Sentrix BeadChip is part of a genotyping portfolio from Illumina that includes whole-genome arrays, focused-content arrays and SNP panels, and assay protocols such as the GoldenGate® and Infinium assays.
The HumanHap300 complements Illumina's exon-centric Human-1 BeadChip that can query over 109,000 SNP loci, 70% of which reside in or near genes.
"The HumanHap300 is the industry's first whole-genome microarray product with content derived purely from the HapMap Project," stated Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO.
"Coupled with our Infinium assay, the HumanHap300 provides the most comprehensive genomic coverage of any product on the market while using far fewer markers than those used in competing approaches."
"Our growing line of whole-genome genotyping products has set a new standard for performance and quality in this explosive market," Flatley concluded.
