Illumina awarded contract for genotyping services

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Feb. 14 - Illumina, Inc. said Tuesday that it is has been awarded a genotyping services contract by SAIC-Frederick, Inc. under prime contract to the National Cancer Institute to perform whole-genome SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) scans on more than 2,500 prostate cases and control samples provided by the institute.

The genotyping supports the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility, an NCI strategic initiative coordinated through the institute's division of cancer epidemiology and genetics, the core genotyping facility and the office of cancer genomics, according to a company news release.

The initiative is designed to map susceptibility in prostate and breast cancers, with the aim of understanding disease cause and progression and then identifying strategies for prevention, earlier detection and treatment, officials said.

Illumina will use its Sentrix HumanHap300 BeadChip and Infinium assay to perform the genotyping.

Each HumanHap300 BeadChip can query more than 317,000 SNP markers composed principally of "tagSNPs" identified and validated by the International HapMap Project.

Post-genotyping data analysis will be conducted under the guidance of the institute's Advanced Technology Center Core Genotyping Facility.

"We're very pleased to extend our relationship with the NCI," Jay Flatley, Illumina president and chief executive officer, said in the release.

Illumina, based in San Diego, develops and markets next-generation tools for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function.

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