Illumina this week launched iControlDB, a genotyping control repository available for use by researchers conducting case-control whole-genome association studies. According to the company, iControlDB provides an efficient way for investigators to obtain control samples, allowing them to focus resources on genotyping disease samples.
Genomics institutes, including the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, have already donated more than 6,000 control samples to the database. In addition, controls have been deposited from the International HapMap Project, and the database contains samples from Caucasian, African, African American, African-American Mixed Descent, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, Hispanic-Mixed Descent, Indian, and Vietnamese populations, Illumina said.
By the end of 2007, iControlDB is expected to comprise more than 20,000 samples.
Researchers can use the tool by visiting www.illumina.com/iControlDB.
Kreatech Biotechnology last week launched its ULS arrayCGH Labeling Kit for labeling DNA isolated from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples.
The kit has been optimized to work in labeling samples for use in comparative genomic hybridization applications on bacterial artificial chromosome arrays, Kreatech said. It also includes the firm’s Kreapure purification columns that specifically remove unreacted Universal Linkage System reagents from the labeling reaction but have no affinity for nucleic acids.