Fluidigm Corporation has announced that Rujin Hospital in
Shanghai, China has used the company's integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) to
help validate two new susceptibility loci for Graves' disease. Researchers
applied the unique properties of the Fluidigm 96.96 Dynamic Array
TM IFC and the
EP1
TM System to re-genotype selected SNPs for the replication study.
In a paper entitled A genome-wide association study identifies two new risk
loci for Graves' disease, published in the August 14, 2011 issue of Nature
Genetics Magazine, researchers confirmed four previously reported loci and
identified two new susceptibility loci for Graves' disease. Graves' disease is
a common autoimmune disorder characterized by thyroid stimulating hormone
receptor autoantibodies and hyperthyroidism.
To investigate the genetic architecture of Graves' disease, Rujin Hospital
researchers conducted a genome-wide association study in 1,536 individuals with
Graves' disease (cases) and 1,516 controls. They further evaluated a group of
associated SNPs in a second set of 3,994 cases and 3,510 controls. All samples
were recruited from the Chinese Han population through collaboration with
hospitals in China.
"The Fluidigm EP1 microfluidic genetic analysis system proved to be a
powerful tool for SNP genotyping validation research in our GWAS project,"
noted Dr. Chun-Ming Pan of the State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Ruijin
Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine. "The EP1
enabled us to easily set up 9,216 PCR experiments at a time without using a
robot. Within four hours we acquired almost 10,000 data points with outstanding
reproducibility and accuracy. The nanoliter-level reaction chambers of Fluidigm
chips resulted in significant cost savings, as we needed to only use minute
amounts of the expensive SNP genotyping reagents. For us, the EP1 is an ideal
platform for our GWAS research," concluded Dr. Pan.
"There is world-class science being conducted in China and Rujin
Hospital's important work in Graves' disease research is a great example of
it," said Gajus Worthington, Fluidigm president and chief executive
officer. "Fluidigm is proud to have contributed to their discoveries
through the use of our genotyping systems, and there is more to come. We now
have more than a dozen systems in use within China, at some of the country's
leading research laboratories. We believe this is just the beginning and that
our technology can play a significant and broad role in enabling China's life
science researchers."
GWAS was performed on a microarray system at the Chinese National Human Genome
Center in Shanghai, China. In stage 2, 100 SNPs were selected for the
replication study. Among them, 96 SNPs were genotyped using TaqMan
TM SNP
Genotyping Assays using the Fluidigm 96.96 Dynamic Array IFC and EP1 platform.
Fluidigm (NASDAQ: FLDM) develops, manufactures and markets microfluidic systems
for growth markets in the life science and agricultural biotechnology, or
Ag-Bio, industries. Fluidigm's proprietary microfluidic systems consist of
instruments and consumables, including integrated fluidic circuits, or chips,
and reagents. These systems are designed to significantly simplify experimental
workflow, increase throughput and reduce costs, while providing the excellent
data quality demanded by customers. Fluidigm actively markets three
microfluidic systems including nine different commercial chips to leading
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and Ag-Bio
companies. For more information, please visit
www.fluidigm.com.
* "Fluidigm," the
Fluidigm logo, EP1 and Dynamic Array are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Fluidigm.