Affymetrix, Inc., a company that manufactures DNA microarrays and is based in Santa Clara, California, United State,  has signed a global distribution agreement with Craigavon based Almac Group Ltd., an established company that provides an extensive range of pharmaceutical services to distribute Almac's Xcel array for research use in biomarker discovery for multiple disease areas, including cancer.

The Almac's Xcel array is a microarray, built on the industry-standard Affymetrix' GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array platform (RUO), that has been optimized for RNA expression profiling from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples.

Standard collection practice is to collect tissue samples and store them as FFPE samples. The ability to extract accurate and high-quality gene expression information from FFPE samples will have a significant impact in enabling new discovery and validation from this valuable tissue source.

“Almac's Xcel array, with its superior design and content derived from multiple cancer types, is an ideal microarray for gene expression profiling from FFPE tissues, unlocking previously inaccessible genetic content for translational research,” said Kevin Cannon, PhD, Expression Business Lead at Affymetrix. “Researchers now have the ability to carry out retrospective studies for discovery and validation of gene expression biomarkers for translation into clinical practices. This array represents a significant technology advancement, and combined with Genisphere's Sensation reagents addresses a much needed FFPE workflow solution for gene expression profiling and biomarker discovery.”

Almac's Xcel array contains over 97,000 transcripts, including all of the Affymetrix' GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array content, updated RefSeq content, and substantially new content such as long non-coding and endogenous antisense transcripts. The inclusion of all of the content from GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array allows cross-mapping between existing data sets and new data generated from the Xcel array. The substantial and high quality content on the Xcel array ensures that the platform technology is ideally suited for research in cross-disease areas.

“We are very pleased to have entered into this distribution agreement with Affymetrix. The Xcel array has proven to be extremely useful in our hands for biomarker discovery, both for our in-house R&D and for our research clients. This agreement with Affymetrix enables more researchers to derive benefit from the platform for their translational research,” said Michael Sloan, vice president of Business Development of Almac Diagnostics.

Affymetrix will officially launch the Xcel array at the AACR 2012 annual meeting in Chicago, March 31 - April 3.

Almac's Diagnostics business unit is focused on the discovery and development of biomarkers. It utilizes its proprietary technology, extensive experience and expertise to offer solutions to biotech and Pharma partners. Almac focuses on providing a range of services including exploratory biomarker discovery studies, verification studies for existing markers, assay development, and biomarker validation.

Affymetrix technology is used by the world's top pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and biotechnology companies, as well as leading academic, government, and nonprofit research institutes.