Avesthagen has entered into partnership agreement with the US-based Affymetrix Inc. to speed up the genetic study of the Parsee community in India. In this connection, Affymetrix' micro array technology will be used for The Avestagenome Project, a comprehensive genetic study of more than 60,000 Parsee community. The project will explore the genetic basis of longevity and create a genetic, genealogic and medical database of the Parsee -Zoroastrian population.

Thirty-one per cent of the Parsi population lives beyond the age of 60, compared to seven per cent nationally. A better understanding of the genetic causes of longevity could have a major impact on the Union government's healthcare budget and drug companies' marketing efforts.

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 Parsee community. The Parsee community was selected because of its longevity and its relatively genetically homogeneous population. The Avestagenome Project was designed to lead to discovery of novel biomarkers and drug targets that can result in predictive, preventive and personalized healthcare.

"Working closely with a global leader such as Affymetrix provides us with access to industry-leading technology and some of the world's most prominent genetic researchers," said Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell, founder, chairperson and managing director, Avesthagen Ltd. "We believe that the combination of the Affymetrix technology and our team of scientists will yield interesting findings that will benefit people around the world", she added.

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 Parsee database and then looks to create more effective diagnostics and personalized treatments for patients." All of the genetic information is being collected following informed consent. Data confidentiality is being maintained as in accordance with the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines.

Spinco Biotech Pvt. Ltd. will supply the Affymetrix micro array technology and provide technical support to Avesthagen.

Affymetrix GeneChip microarray technology is the industry-standard tool to analyze complex genetic information. The technology is used by leading pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology companies, as well as leading academic, government and not-for-profit research institutes. More than 1,700 systems have been shipped around the world and more than 11,000 peer-reviewed papers have been published using the technology.