SNPed to fit

Many companies are pursuing gene-specific SNP analysis because of its potential use in diagnostics as well as in therapeutic development. But the use of SNPs as an investigational tool for genome-wide analysis has proven more difficult. However, researchers at Polygenyx Inc. now have outlined a strategy for large-scale SNP analysis.

Current SNP genotyping protocols require individual amplification of known SNP-containing loci, so that SNPs in genes with unknown function are not being identified. But as noted by John Landers, chief scientific officer at Polygenyx (Worcester, Mass.), "large-scale SNP analysis becomes important when the disease under question is genetically undefined or results from complex genetic factors."...