BETHESDA, Md.--Affymetrix, the Santa Clara, Calif., maker of the GeneChip probe array technology, said the US National Cancer Institute has agreed to terms and conditions set forth by Affymetrix that will make the technology accessible to academic and not-for-profit researchers in a manner consistent with the institute's guidelines. Researchers will be able to publish scientific results via traditional and emerging electronic means, collaborate with academic, government, and commercial scientific colleagues, and retain rights to their genetic discoveries. Affymetrix said it will negotiate volume price discounts with each institution separately.
The cancer institute said its concerns about the broad availability of high-throughput molecular analysis technologies to the cancer and general biomedical research community led to its negotiations with Affymetrix. The institute said it will provide administrative supplements to its grantees to purchase DNA equipment, as well as to special programs in research excellence that it supports, in order that comprehensive molecular technologies may be applied to translational cancer research.