Affymetrix and Ariosa Diagnostics sign agreement in support of Ariosa's noninvasive prenatal test

Affymetrix and Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., have announced the signing of a multi-year supply agreement covering Affymetrix arrays and instruments to be utilized as part of Ariosa’s Harmony Non-Invasive Prenatal Test. The partnership enables Ariosa to pursue the development of a Harmony test kit that will allow other laboratories around the world to adopt and perform this test.

This announcement follows the recent publication of a study in Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy online in which Ariosa’s scientists successfully tested and implemented Affymetrix microarrays as part of a DNA quantification method for the Harmony test. The study demonstrated better performance of Affymetrix microarrays in comparison to a next generation-sequencing approach in regard to shorter turnaround time and improved precision in measuring chromosome concentration and fetal fraction of cell-free DNA.

The Harmony prenatal test is a non-invasive blood test for pregnant women that can be used as early as 10 weeks into pregnancy. By evaluating cell-free DNA found in maternal blood, the test can assess the risk of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) in the fetus. It has been validated with a large clinical data set in the prenatal cell-free DNA space, is available in more than 90 countries, and has been used to guide clinical care in more than 350,000 pregnancies worldwide.

Ariosa Diagnostics is a partner in Affymetrix’s Powered by Affymetrix Program. “Our array and assay technologies are foundational genomic tools in reproductive health and oncology applications, and our partners are providing innovative solutions for unmet needs in these critical areas,” says Frank Witney, President and CEO of Affymetrix. “We are pleased to work with Ariosa to supply arrays and instrumentation.” Read the Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy study.