ITMAT, the Broad Institute, and CARe will use the chip to analyze more than 55,000 SNPs in various studies.

Illumina entered into a collaboration with the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) at the University of Pennsylvania, the Broad Institute, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Candidate-gene Association Resource Consortium to develop a customized chip for vascular disease. Using Illumina’s iSelect Custom Genotyping BeadChip, the IBC (ITMAT, Broad, CARe) chip will be able to analyze more than 55,000 SNPs in candidate genes selected for cardiovascular and other associated phenotypes.


The content for the custom array was chosen based on published scientific literature, cardiovascular disease pathway analysis, and recent whole-genome analysis data sets. The researchers will use Illumina’s iSelect Custom Genotyping BeadChip to assess the genetic diversity within pathways of approximately 2,100 genes believed to underpin primary and secondary vascular disease processes.


The organizations report that more than 120,000 samples from large population studies and clinical trials will be analyzed for genetic links to vascular disease. Some of the cohorts to be interrogated include nine 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, and a University of Pennsylvania consortium of cardiovascular disease studies that includes PennCATH.

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