Santa Clara, CA. (OBBeC) - Affymetrix has announced that it has signed an agreement with Avesthagen, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India. Under the terms of the agreement, Affymetrix' microarray technology will be used for The AVESTAGENOME Project, a comprehensive genetic study of more than 60,000 Parsi individuals. The project will explore the genetic basis of longevity and create a genetic, genealogic and medical database of the Parsi-Zoroastrian population.

According to the announcement, the use of Affymetrix technology will enable researchers to correlate genes with longevity, as well as neurodegenerative conditions, breast cancer, diabetes and other complex diseases that affect the Parsi community.

The AVESTAGENOME Project takes a systems biology approach which encompasses not only genotyping but also expression profiling and transcriptomics. The genotyping phase of the project, which began on October 5, 2007, consists of 10,000 samples in the first year. By the middle of 2008, the team will perform expression profiling and transcript mapping experiments across a subset of the samples. The project is expected to be completed before 2013.

"The AVESTAGENOME Project is a prime example of a community uniting to accelerate research for the common diseases affecting one another," said Kevin King, president of Affymetrix. "Affymetrix looks forward to a long-term relationship with the Avesthagen team as it develops the Parsi database and then looks to create more effective diagnostics and personalized treatments for patients."