Korean NIH to Use Affymetrix 500K Array Set

Affymetrix Inc. has announced that Korea's National Institute of Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention will use the Affymetrix GeneChip^® Human Mapping 500K Array Set for a series of genome-wide association studies in critical disease areas, including diabetes, hypertension, asthma and metabolic syndrome.

The Korean NIH will work with its academic and industry collaborators to generate 10 billion individual genotypes from 20,000 human DNA samples to help identify the genetic causes of these diseases.

"Using the new high-throughput Affymetrix technology, we will perform genome-wide association studies to discover and understand the genes associated with a number of conditions that are unusually prevalent in Korea," said Kuchan Kimm, M.D., Ph.D and director of the Center for Genome Science at the National Institute of Health, Republic of Korea.

"We feel these studies can improve the quality of life in Korea by helping us develop cost-effective therapeutics and personalized preventative measures against conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome."

The Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 500K Array Set is designed to provide a comprehensive view, enabling researchers to analyze 500,000 markers simultaneously and perform whole-genome analyses in large populations.

"Whole-genome association studies are accelerating genetic discoveries in labs around the world," said Tom Willis, Ph.D, vice president of DNA Marketing at Affymetrix.

"The GeneChip Human Mapping 500K Array Set is quickly becoming the standard in large-scale genotyping, enabling researchers to understand at last the underlying causes of complex diseases."

"When combined with our targeted genotyping products, our GeneChip platform will allow discoveries to be validated efficiently and brought to the patient's bedside, where new treatments and tests will allow the promise of personalized healthcare to be realized."