A Medical Device Daily
Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) reported that the Autism Consortium has selected its single Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 500K Array for what it described as “the world's most comprehensive study” of the genes associated with autism, called the Autism Gene Discovery Project
The study will be conducted by scientists from the Autism Consortium and the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Harvard (Cambridge) The researchers will use the 500K Array to perform whole-genome association studies across 3,700 samples collected from autistic subjects.
Autism is the fastest growing disability in the U.S., the company said. According to the Autism Consortium, a clinical collaboration of 11 Boston-area institutions, a child is diagnosed with autism every 21 minutes and now affects one in every 166 children.
It said a number of recent research studies indicate that the underlying cause of this disease is strongly influenced by a person's genetics. However, definitive links to specific genes contributing to autism have not been fully elucidated, in part due to limitations of analytic technologies.
The Affymetrix 500K Array is designed to enable researchers to perform studies across thousands of samples to find genes with subtle effects in a complex disease like autism.
Affymetrix said its new single 500K Array further increases the power of association studies to quickly find disease-related genes. Researchers can analyze more samples because of the array's low cost and they can extract more information because each array has about twice the SNP content as the earlier version of the 500K. The single 500K Array is a direct result of an ongoing collaboration between Affymetrix and scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
The consortium is also collaborating with scientists at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), who are in the third year of an autism study using the 500K to scan 600 families. The two groups will be combining their data to avoid duplication of efforts and accelerate disease-gene discovery.
The Hopkins study is funded through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; both Bethesda, Maryland).
“One only has to look at how far genetic discoveries have gone in driving the development of promising new therapies for other inherited diseases, e.g. Alzheimer's disease, to see that we cannot afford to wait any longer to do the same for autism,” said Rudy Tanzi, PhD, a member of the Autism Consortium and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. “We need to identify the genes underlying autism as soon as possible and then begin translating those findings into innovative treatments.”
“It is critical to analyze thousands of samples in order to identify genetic variations associated with complex diseases such as autism,” said Tom Willis, PhD, vice president, DNA Marketing at Affymetrix. “The Affymetrix 500K is making these studies possible today by enabling researchers to study both genotypes and copy number polymorphisms across this population, all at an affordable price.”
Affymetrix says that its photolithographic manufacturing process provides the most information capacity available today on an array, enabling researchers to use a whole-genome approach to analyzing the relationship between genetics and health.
In other grants news, Syneron Medical (Yokneam, Israel), the developer of elosT combined-energy medical aesthetic devices, said that it has received a $6 million order from American Laser Centers (Farmington Hills, Michigan), the national laser hair removal, skin rejuvenation and cellulite reduction therapy company, as the first part of a multi-year agreement for deployment of Syneron eLightT and eLaserT devices in its clinics throughout the U.S.
The new equipment was designed by Syneron according to protocols which American Laser Centers says it has developed for its clients during four years of experience with Syneron's elos-based systems on more than 100,000 patients.
The equipment will be produced by Syneron under an American Laser Centers' label.
The new eLightT Systems (brand-named AmeriLightT) and eLaserT Systems (brand-named AmeriLaseT) will replace all skin rejuvenation and hair removal equipment currently being used in American Laser Centers' clinics with the goal of establishing uniformity of protocols and clinical results throughout its more than 120 clinics.