Affymetrix launches new menu of multiple genomic microarray tools

Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) today announced the availability of multiple genomic microarray tools that will further enable scientists in the applied research field. The company is updating, developing, and manufacturing organism arrays in collaboration with leading scientific communities so that researchers in areas such as animal breeding, crop science, and microbial genetics can have easier access to microarrays with proven assays, formats, and platforms. The new menu of arrays includes whole-transcript (WT) expression profiling, genotyping, and gene regulation arrays for organisms such as bovine, rice, soybean, porcine, medicago, zebrafish, mosquito, E. coli, Shigella, maize, and others. In addition, Affymetrix offers more than 30 other arrays for environmental, food, and infectious disease studies in cartridge, strip, and plate formats for different throughput needs.

“We are keeping pace with the genomic technology needs of consortia, industry, and individual researchers as they work to solve some of the world's most pervasive problems”

"We are keeping pace with the genomic technology needs of consortia, industry, and individual researchers as they work to solve some of the world's most pervasive problems," said Affymetrix Chief Commercial Officer Andy Last. "We are collaborating with members of consortia through every step of our development and manufacturing process to ensure that they get the most out of their array designs."

Affymetrix and its partners are utilizing the most recent genomic data produced from next-generation sequencing studies to design these arrays. By offering arrays for many applications such as gene expression, genotyping, miRNA, and copy number variation analysis, Affymetrix can supply customers with proven and cost-effective tools for studying, screening, and understanding these organisms without having to invest the time to develop tools to understand the complex and vast amounts of data generated by sequencing.

Two of the most recent arrays include the Axiom™ Genome-Wide BOS 1 Array for bovine breeders and researchers and the GeneChip^® Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array. The Axiom BOS 1 Array includes genetic traits from the most commercially vital breeds of dairy and beef cattle. Its high-performing markers greatly improve the reliability of genetic profiling by giving breeders an accelerated path to higher quality beef and dairy cattle and reducing the need for costly and time-consuming phenotypic testing. The Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array was designed in collaboration with a worldwide community of rice researchers to improve the rice industry's production confidence by providing a low-cost, high-quality method for reliably identifying rice varietals and examining the genetic inheritance of important agricultural traits to ensure better crop survival and yields. Both arrays offer better genetic coverage than the closest competitive arrays.