Affymetrix () is a manufacturer of DNA microarrays, based in Santa Clara, California, United States. The company was co-founded by Dr. Stephen Fodor in 1992. The company was begun as a unit in Affymax N.V. in 1991 by Fodor's group, which had in the late 1980s developed methods for fabricating DNA microarrays, called "GeneChips" according to the Affymetrix trademark, using semiconductor manufacturing techniques. The company's first product, an HIV genotyping GeneChip, was introduced in 1994 and the company went public in 1996. As a result of their pioneering work and the ensuing popularity of microarray products, Affymetrix derives significant benefit from its patent portfolio in this area.

Acquisitions have included Genetic MicroSystems for slide-based microarrays and scanners, Neomorphic for bioinformatics, and USB for biochemical reagents. In 2000 Perlegen Sciences was spun out to focus on wafer-scale genomics for massive data creation and collection required for characterizing population variance of genomic markers and expression for the drug discovery process.

Description of product

Example of two Affymetrix chips

Affymetrix sells both mass produced GeneChips intended to match scientifically important parts of human and other animal genomes. Affymetrix manufactures its GeneChips using photolithography. The company also manufactures machinery for high speed analysis of biological samples.

Competitors in the DNA Microarray business include Illumina, GE Healthcare, Ocimum Biosolutions Ltd, Applied Biosystems, Beckman Coulter, Eppendorf Biochip Systemshttp://www.eppendorf-biochips.com, and Agilent. There are also various inexpensive plastic-based technologies under development in small companies and laboratories around the world. It has been widely speculated that mass-produced plastic chips can be produced at lower prices than Affymetrix's quartz chips.

Affymetrix has established a licensing program to make its intellectual property accessible to stimulate the broad commercialization of genome analysis technologies. They have several collaboration relationships with other companies that utilize their patented GeneChip technology.

External links

• Affymetrix Homepage
• Perlegen Sciences Homepage
• DNAVision - Affymetrix official service provider.
• Genevestigator - Web-based database and analysis tool to study gene expression across many tissues, developmental stages, drugs, stimuli, and genetic modifications. The database contains data from thousands of Affymetrix microarrays.

References

• Note: reference includes all child pages and documents of this page, inclusive. There is some contradiction in specific details of the founding of Affymetrix among documents found here.