Illumina to Complete Analysis of Ovarian Cancer - Sequencing - Genome Web

"The original plan was to analyze 25 ovarian and 25 gastric tumor/normal pairs by the end of 2009 using the company's Genome Analyzer, including whole-genome sequencing to at least 30-fold coverage, mRNA-seq, methylation sequencing, and chip genotyping. That timeline got delayed somewhat, and the company now expects to finish the ovarian tumors by the end of March and move into a validation phase, and then tackle the gastric cancer samples.

The delay was largely due to a longer-than-expected process of acquiring and qualifying the samples, Heath explained. For the ovarian cancer project, for example, he said the company was looking for stage I or II samples with a tumor content of at least 70 percent from non-smokers who did not have mutations in the BRCA 1 or 2 genes. He also said that the type of consent required for whole-genome sequencing is "quite a bit different from what is normally consented" and required the company, in some instances, to go back and ask for additional consent."