Illumina, Inc. Announces Breakthrough Human Genome Sequencing Studies Published in Nature

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced that the November 6, 2008 issue of Nature published sequencing results of the first Yoruban human genome. The study was completed by Illumina scientists and collaborators at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and generated greater than 30x average coverage of the genome. Four million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including one million novel SNPs, and 400,000 structural variants were identified. The Yoruban study and two other papers—by researchers at Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and Washington University—featured in the same November 6 issue of Nature all used the Illumina Genome Analyzer to complete the sequencing studies. This marks the first time that three human genome studies—including the first Asian individual, the first cancer patient, and the first African male—have been simultaneously published in a single journal.