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In April 2000, the SNP Consortium released the findings of
its inaugural year's work. It has released 102,719 SNPs, 95%
of which have been confirmed as polymorphic and unique. Founded
in April 1999 by the UK's Wellcome Trust, 10 pharmaceutical
companies were amongst the original members:
- AstraZeneca
- Bayer
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Glaxo Wellcome
- Hoechst Marion Roussel (now Aventis)
- Novartis
- Pfizer
- Monsanto Searle (now Pharmacia Corp)
- Roche
- SmithKline Beecham
The consortium aims to create a public database of human
genetic markers, which could revolutionise the treatment
of a variety of diseases within the next decade. The collection
of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) will help identify
specific genes involved in common and rare diseases, allowing
the discovery of new therapies and medicines, diagnostic tests,
and 'personalised' medicines.
In the last few months, some new members have joined the SNP
Consortium. First was Motorola in October 1999, via its Motorola
BioChip Systems unit, formed in 1998. This develops advanced
computer chips for the running and analysing of thousands
of biochemical reactions. Its products are designed to turn
genomics developments into practical solutions for human health.
In January 2000, IBM signed up for the programme, having previously
announced that it was building a $100 million supercomputer
known as 'Blue Gene', which will be used to model the folding
of human proteins. When built in 4-5 years, it will be capable
of performing more than one million billion mathematical operations
per second - around two million times more powerful than a
top-of-the-range desktop PC.
Most recently, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (a division
of Nycomed Amersham) joined the SNP Consortium in March 2000.
It has committed $3 million to the construction of the SNP
map.
A pooled panel of DNA from unrelated, anonymous people is
being sequenced at three centres: Washington University in
St Louis, Missouri; the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Sanger Centre
in Cambridge, England. The data is then mapped and released
by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
The not-for-profit SNP Consortium notes that if its
approach is to become broadly applicable to the diagnosis
and treatment of disease, it will "require the commercialization
of cost-effective technologies to screen massive amounts of
genetic information rapidly and accurately."
The 102,719 SNPs released in April represent 69% of the total
found. The consortium has said the remainder of the 150,000
are not fully mapped, and thus might be open to patenting
by others. This led to speculation that the group might not
be as open with its data as originally promised. Nevertheless,
the consortium has released more than twice the target amount
of SNPs in its first year.
Chairman and CEO Arthur Holden commented, "The SNP Consortium's
first year results have exceeded our initial expectations,
both in terms of the number of SNPs identified and the number
mapped. We are now on an accelerated schedule to complete
a more extensive SNP map than originally planned." It is now
seeking to determine the allele frequency of at least 60,000
SNPs in a minimum of three major populations (Caucasian,
Asian and African American) to enhance the value of the SNP
map.
IMS HEALTH first covered this subject in September 1999 -
click here for the
original article.
Available to buy and download now from IMS HEALTH:
Pharmaceutical Company
Profiles
AstraZeneca - Bristol-Myers Squibb - Glaxo Wellcome - Hoechst
Marion Roussel - Monsanto - Novartis - Pfizer - Roche -
SmithKline Beecham
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