MGH and Harvard Select Illumina HumanHap300 for Whole-Genome Association Study of ALS
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Illumina, Inc. has announced that investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School will utilize data from Sentrix® HumanHap300 BeadChips and Infinium® assay reagents to perform a 2,200-sample case/control whole-genome association study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease.
The study will be supervised by Dr. Robert Brown of MGH and Harvard Medical School, and by Dr. Adrian Ivinson, Director of the School's Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair (HCNR).
Infinium genotyping on Illumina's genetic analysis system will be conducted at The Broad Institute under the direction of Dr. Stacey Gabriel.
Each HumanHap300 BeadChip is designed to offer broad genomic coverage and queries over 315,000 tagSNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms with high per-marker statistical value) while delivering data quality.
Dr. Ivinson asserts that this will be the largest genetic study to date of ALS. The study is projected to provide significant insight into the etiology, or genetic cause of the disease, and is expected to lead to improved diagnosis, earlier intervention and ultimately, more effective treatment.
Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO, stated, "ALS seems indiscriminate in its selection and is currently inevitable in its outcome."
"We're proud to be able to support this scientific effort aimed at unmasking the genetic cause of this tragic disease."
