Affymetrix sells new gene chip / Chip represents full human genome
Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara won the race Thursday to market a single gene chip packed with fragments from each of the 35,000 known genes that make up the human genome.
But two other Bay area companies, Agilent Technologies of Palo Alto and Applied Biosystems of Foster City, are close behind with their own versions of a whole-genome microarray, or chip.
The chips mark a major technical advance in the use of human genetic information to find new drugs, and eventually, to tailor treatments based on differences in each patient’s DNA.