NEW YORK, March 12 - Illumina will be getting $1.2 million from the National Cancer Institute to develop a multiplexed immunoassay system for proteins and post-translational protein modifications, the company said.
Illumina will design the system for use in identifying and exploring defects in the homeostasis of the lymphoid system, and the immune response to cancer.
The grant is a Phase 2 research grants funded through NCI's Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies program. It will help the company adapt its microbead array technology, now used for DNA and RNA analysis, in order to measure and characterize proteins.
The company will partner with Christopher Goodnow, who is professor of molecular medicine at the Australian National University's John Curtin School for Medical Research. Goodnow's research centers on investigating lymphocyte reactions in order to understand autoimmune disorders, allergies, metastatic cancers, and diseases like leukemia and lymphoma.
He has previously worked with Illumina on a project to use arrays in order to investigate gene expression and protein activity in mutant mice.