| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ILMN) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Revenue | $212.00 million (Q2 2010) |
| Website | http://www.illumina.com/ |
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is a company incorporated in April 1998 that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using its technologies, the company provides a line of products and services that serve the sequencing, genotyping and gene expression markets. Customers include genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. Its tools provide researchers with the capability to perform genetic tests needed to extract medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California.
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Illumina was founded in April 1998 by David Walt, Ph.D., Larry Bock ,John Stuelpnagel, D.V.M., Anthony Czarnik, Ph.D., and Mark Chee, Ph.D. While working with CW Group, a venture capital firm, Larry and John uncovered what would become Illumina's BeadArray technology at Tufts University and negotiated an exclusive license to that technology. Illumina completed its initial public offering in July 2000.
Illumina began offering single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping services in 2001 and launched its first system, the Illumina BeadLab, in 2002, using GoldenGate Genotyping technology. Illumina currently offers microarray-based products and services for an expanding range of genetic analysis sequencing, including SNP genotyping, gene expression, and protein analysis. Illumina‚ Äôs technologies are used by a broad range of academic, government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other leading institutions around the globe.
On January 26, 2007, the Company completed the acquisition of Solexa, Inc. Solexa develops and commercializes genetic analysis technologies acquired from Manteia Predictive Medicine used to perform a range of analyses, including whole genome resequencing, gene expression analysis and small ribonucleic acid (RNA) analysis.
In June 2009, Illumina announced the launch of their own Personal Full Genome Sequencing Service at a depth of 30X for $48,000 per genome[1], and a year later dropped the price to $19,500.[2] This is still too expensive for true commercialization but the price will most likely decrease substantially over the next few years as they realize economies of scale and given the competition with other companies such as Complete Genomics[3] and Knome.[4]. As of May 2011, Illumina reduced the price to $4,000 [5][6].
Illumina is one of the primary players in the race to commercialize full genome sequencing. They have approached this initiative over the last couple of years through licensing deals, such as with Oxford Nanopore Technologies,[7] M&As of other companies (such as Solexa in 2006),[8] and heavy reinvestment of profits into its own R&D. Illumina is reportedly utilizing nanopore technology licensed from Oxford Nanopore Technologies to enable their full genome sequencing. It is unknown whether Illumina will provide their service only through their own San Diego-based laboratory or if they will sell a platform capable of full genome sequencing to other laboratories. Other companies involved in the race to commercialize full genome sequencing are Life Technologies, Pacific Biosciences, and Complete Genomics. Life Technologies recently demonstrated complete human genome sequencing, with 17x coverage, in a single run with its SOLiD Sequencer.[9][10] Complete Genomics has stated that they will be able to offer a $5,000 full genome sequencing service by the summer of 2009.[11][12] Illumina's CEO, Jay Flatley, stated in February 2009 that "A complete DNA read-out for every newborn will be technically feasible and affordable in less than five years, promising a revolution in healthcare" and that "by 2019 it will have become routine to map infants' genes when they are born".[13] By June 2009, they had launched their own full genome sequencing service called Every Genome at a price of $48,000 per genome. As of May 2011, Illumina reduced the price to $4,000 [14][15].
The GoldenGate Methylation Cancer Panel allows the user to probe 1,505 CpG loci selected from 807 genes across a large sample size. The array based method allows 96 samples to be probed simultaneously on one array matrix.
Utilizing Illumina's HumanMethylation27 DNA Analysis BeadChip and the Infinium technology, this method allows the user to map single methylation resolution for 27,578 CpG sites across over 14,000 genes.
Illumina sells a number of very high-throughput DNA sequencing systems based on technology developed by Solexa. The technology features bridge amplification to generate clusters and reversible terminators for sequence determination .
Full genome sequencing service sold solely through health care professionals (not direct to consumer).