A Medical Device Daily

Illumina (San Diego) said it has signed a genotyping services agreement with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (J&JPRD; La Jolla, California).

Illumina will develop custom single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) content for a multi-sample Sentrix BeadChip. The BeadChip platform enables analysis of 12 samples and up to 60,000 SNPs per sample on a single BeadChip.

Illumina expects to genotype thousands of samples provided by J&JPRD using its Infinium assay, which can provide array-based deployment and genotyping of virtually any SNP on the genome at effectively unlimited multiplex levels.

No further details of the agreement were disclosed.

Illumina develops tools for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. The company's BeadArray technology - used in genomics centers around the world - provides the throughput necessary to enable researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries to perform the billions of tests necessary to extract medically valuable information from advances in genomics and proteomics, the company said.

BioFortis (Baltimore) reported that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland) has selected its software, Labmatrix, for use within its Center for Cancer Research (CCR).

The CCR, NCI's internal research program, is comprised of multiple labs, branches and core facilities supporting both clinical and basic sciences, with a focus on translational cancer research.

Labmatrix, a web-based, enterprise translational research information management software product, is being used to support human subjects research by seamlessly integrating clinical data with genomic, proteomic and laboratory experimental data, as well as maintain annotated tissue banks. CCR's decision to adopt the Labmatrix technology came after extensive user evaluation within the Neuro Oncology Branch. An analysis was also conducted of requirements to interface with existing CCR infrastructure utilizing caBIG interoperability standards.

Labmatrix's ability to track human biological specimens, IRB (Institutional Review Board) consents, sample usage and downstream analytical results, is especially important in today's regulatory environment, which demands responsibility and accountability from researchers and research administrators to document and maintain audit trails of all use of human specimens for research.