Monday, June 9, 2008

TGen, Case Western to Use Affy Arrays in Diabetes Study

[Source: a GenomeWeb staff reporter ] - Case Western Reserve University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute will use Affymetrix’s Human SNP Array 6.0 to study genetic pathways associated with a certain complication of diabetes, Affy said today.

The two institutions will use Affy’s arrays to focus on finding genetic links to diabetic nephropathy using data from a study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

The Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) Consortium research program stretched over five years and involved 11 different recruitment centers and 10,000 subjects. The FIND Consortium has identified several genetic variants linked to nephropathy in African-Americans, European-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and American Indians.

The researchers involved in this end of the project hope to use the information to develop therapies to prevent or control nephropathy, and to identify people at risk for progressive renal disease.

"Diabetes continues to mystify researchers because both genetic and environmental factors appear to play significant roles in the manifestation of the disease,” Affymetrix President Kevin King said in a statement.

Financial terms of the agreement were not released.

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