Illumina Announces Multi-Million Dollar Collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, the Broad Institute, and the CARe Consortium to Develop a Customized SNP Panel for Vascular Disease

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced a large-scale collaboration with the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the Broad Institute, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Candidate-gene Association REsource (CARe) Consortium to develop a customized chip for vascular disease. Called the IBC (ITMAT, Broad, CARe) chip, this array will be developed to analyze more than 55,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes selected for cardiovascular and other associated phenotypes. Employing Illumina’s iSelect Custom Genotyping BeadChip, researchers will assess the genetic diversity within pathways of approximately 2,100 genes believed to underpin primary and secondary vascular disease processes, such as blood pressure, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, insulin resistance, metabolic disorders, dyslipidemia (changes in lipid levels in the blood), and inflammation. At the study’s completion, more than 120,000 samples from large population studies and clinical trials will be analyzed for genetic links to vascular disease. Vascular disease refers to any condition that affects the circulatory system. This ranges from diseases of the arteries, veins, and lymph vessels to blood disorders that affect circulation. It is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, Japan, and Europe, and a rapidly increasing cause of death and disability elsewhere in the world. The content for the custom array was chosen based on published scientific literature, cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathway analysis, and recent whole-genome analysis data sets. Some of the cohorts to be interrogated using the 55,000+ SNPs include nine NHLBI epidemiologic cohorts that compose the CARe study, the Diabetes Reduction Assessment with Ramipril and Rosiglitazone Medication trial (DREAM), EpiDREAM (an observational sub-study of DREAM), the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC), and a University of Pennsylvania consortium of CVD studies that includes PennCATH. "Our team opted to work with Illumina’s iSelect Custom Genotyping array because the technology has proven to be extremely flexible and provides us with highly-robust data, making it an optimal platform for a study of this magnitude,” said Garret FitzGerald, M.D., McNeil Professor of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and Director of ITMAT. The collaboration, led by the University of Pennsylvania, the Broad Institute and the CARe Consortium is the first major cardiovascular initiative to use the iSelect Infinium Custom Genotyping array. iSelect custom panels enable researchers to focus on specific disease-related or pathway-related SNPs. The multi-sample BeadChip format increases throughput and shortens sample processing time. iSelect Infinium Custom Genotyping offers the same benefits as standard Infinium products, including the ability to access SNPs across the entire genome, industry-leading data quality, reproducibility, and call rates greater than 99 percent. "With Illumina’s assistance, we worked together to build a comprehensive, focused vascular disease panel. This panel will allow us to quickly genotype thousands of patients across thousands of genes to identify genetic risk factors underlying vascular diseases and other complex genetic traits,” said Joel Hirschhorn, M.D., Ph.D, Associate Member, and Coordinator of Metabolism Initiative at the Broad Institute. "The ability to choose any SNP we desire gives us great confidence that we will develop an accurate and high-quality panel for clinical diagnosis.” To select SNPs in candidate genes, the group’s approach was to find the union of tagging SNPs from the four HapMap populations and SeattleSNPs resequencing data. According to Sonia Anand, M.D., Ph.D, FRCPc, McMaster University Professor and Co-Principal Investigator of the EpiDREAM, "This provides robust coverage for diverse populations, which is very important for our study as it assesses genetic diversity in 22,500 individuals from 21 different countries.” "The University of Pennsylvania’s interest in customizing this genotyping panel to tackle vascular-disease research underscores the creative ways the research community is working with Illumina to unravel the complexities of human disease,” said Jay Flatley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Illumina. "Our whole-genome genotyping technology continues to raise industry standards by delivering unparalleled data quality, format and content flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. This is helping researchers accelerate discoveries that will help us better understand, cure, and ultimately prevent disease.” About the CARe The NHLBI of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiated the CARe in April 2006 with a contract to the Broad Institute to serve as the genotyping and bioinformatics center for this project. CARe’s objective is to create a shared genotype/phenotype resource for analyses of the association of genotypes with phenotypes relevant to the mission of NHLBI. The resource comprises nine cohort studies funded by NHLBI: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), Cleveland Family Study (CFS), Coronary Artery Disease in Young Adults (CARDIA), Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease (CSSCD), Framingham Heart Study (FHS), Jackson Heart Study (JHS), Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), and the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS). When completed, access to the CARe database will be provided to the broad scientific community for approved research purposes. Additional information about the CARe can be found at: http://www.broad.mit.edu/gen_analysis/care/index.php/Main_Page. About Illumina Illumina (www.illumina.com) is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of next-generation life-science tools and integrated systems for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide a comprehensive line of products and services that currently serve the sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression markets, and we expect to enter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers include leading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations, and biotechnology companies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with the performance, throughput, cost effectiveness, and flexibility necessary to perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuable medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. We believe this information will enable researchers to correlate genetic variation and biological function, which will enhance drug discovery and clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier, and permit better choices of drugs for individual patients. "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements are the costs and outcome of Illumina's litigation with Affymetrix and our ability (i) to integrate effectively our recent acquisition of Solexa, Inc., (ii) to develop and commercialize further our BeadArray(TM), VeraCode(TM) and Solexa® technologies and to deploy new gene expression and genotyping products and applications for our technology platforms, (iii) to manufacture robust micro arrays and Oligator® oligonucleotides, (iv) to integrate and scale our VeraCode technology, (v) to scale further oligo synthesis output and technology to satisfy market demand derived from our collaboration with Invitrogen, together with other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.