Alliance to Identify Genetic Markers of Drug Response

A collaboration that will focus on whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scanning to identify genetic markers of drug response has been announced by Perlegen Sciences, Inc. (Mountian View, CA, USA; www.perlegen.com) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, London, UK; www.gsk.com). The goal of the research is to identify, in a limited number of patients, a pattern of markers that may be associated with a phamacogenetics response.

Perlegen uses high-density microarray DNA chips to sequence human DNA rapidly and cost effectively. For example, the company has published sequence and variation data generated by reading 30 million bases of DNA in each of 20 ethnically diverse copies of human chromosome 21. Perlegen has discovered genetic variations across the entire human genome by reading many billions of bases of DNA. More recently, the company developed sample preparation methods and high-density DNA chip sets that make it economically practical to analyze more than one million SNPs in thousands of individuals to find genetic regions that cause disease or affect drug response.

"This collaboration opens the door to combine GSK's genetics expertise with Perlegen's breakthrough technology for identifying the genetic bases of disease and drug response,” said Brad Margus, CEO of Perlegen.




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