Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Buys Illumina Genotyping System

NEW YORK, Feb. 18 -The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has bought one of Illumina's nameless SNP-genotyping laboratories, the company said today.

The institute's researchers will use the system for large genotyping projects, including the International HapMap project.

The product costs between $1.5 million and $2 million and comprises Sherlock scanning equipment, GoldenGate assay protocols, LIMS and analytical software, fluid-handling robotics, and access to Sentrix array matrices and reagent supply. When installed, the lab will be able to crank out one million genotypes per day.

The HapMap project is a $100 million public-private effort to map the extent of linkage disequilibrium-blocks of SNPs-in the human genome. It is being undertaken by Wellcome Sanger, along with the NIH, Genome Canada, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Natural Science Foundation of China, along with the SNP consortium.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is the second node of the International HapMap project to purchase an Illumina genotyping system. Genome Quebec, which is conducting genotyping for Genome Canada's portion of the HapMap, purchased a system Jan. 9.

For  more information, click here.