Affymetrix announces new collaborations in genotyping division

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Eugene, Ore., Sept. 7 - Affymetrix, Inc.'s genotyping division has gained new momentum following the announcements of three new collaborations in recent weeks, said Greg Schiffman, chief financial officer of Affymetrix, at the Thomas Weisel healthcare conference on Thursday.

Affymetrix has entered into a three-year research collaboration with Partners HealthCare to develop microarray-based diagnostics for diseases such as newborn hearing loss, autism and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Schiffman told investors on Thursday.

"We're excited to see the momentum we've regained, and a lot of this is due to some of the recent moves that we've done in the genotyping space," Schiffman said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Partners researchers will create and validate microarray tests in Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) laboratories, according to a company news release.

Affymetrix and the Partners researchers estimate that it may take a year to develop the first chip-based diagnostic test for use in the CLIA-approved laboratory, according to the release.

In addition, Affymetrix announced on Tuesday that it has been selected by the SNP Health Association Resource project for a large-scale whole-genome association study.

The project will analyze more than 9,000 samples collected for the Framingham Heart Study. Affymetrix will collaborate with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Institutes of Health.

"It's the largest study ever done across generations of the heart. The intent of this one is to identify genetic variance associated with heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders," Schiffman said Thursday.

Affymetrix also announced in August that its single GeneChip Human Mapping 500K Array has been selected for use in a comprehensive study on the genes associated with autism.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Affymetrix is a medical technology company.

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