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Stephen P.A. Fodor, Michael C. Pirrung, J. Leighton Read and Lubert Stryer (Affymax Research Institute, Palo Alto, USA)
European Inventors of the Year 2006 in the category "Small and medium-sized enterprises"
The Rosetta Stone of Functional Genetics
While working at Affymax, a Dutch company, Dr Stephen P.A. Fodor shook
the scientific community in the early 1990s with his invention of the
DNA chip. Nothing short of a revolution in medicine, researchers are now
able to look at genes tens of thousands at a time instead of just one
at a time.
VLSIPS: A not-so-familiar abbreviation for Very Large Scale Immobilised
Polymer Syntheses. Though few would recognise the invention by that name,
few would fail to recognize it by its shortened, simplified name –
the DNA chip.
A breakthrough in the field of biochemical analysis, the theory behind
the DNA chip is the notion that semiconductor manufacturing techniques
could be united with advances in combinatorial chemistry to build vast
amounts of biological data on a small glass chip.
Once on the chip, the data could then be used to identify susceptibility
to diseases with a genetic component and to identify pathogens or other
biological agents based on their respective genetic signatures.
The DNA chip journey started at a European firm in the late 1980s, with
Dr Stephen P.A. Fodor at the head of a team of scientists that included
co-inventors Michael C. Pirrung, Leighton J. Read and Lubert Styer.
Fodor, a native of Seattle, Washington, received his PhD in Chemistry
at Princeton University before joining Affymax, a Dutch company, in 1989.
Fodor was recruited to work at the Affymax Research Institute in Palo
Alto, California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Affymax, and it was there
that he began spearheading the research that eventually led to the invention
of the DNA chip.
At the core of the idea was the adoption of the same photolithographic
technologies used by Silicon Valley computer chip manufacturers, but in
this case used for the purpose of rapidly generating many different peptide
or oligonucleotide compounds.
A single DNA chip measuring 1.28 cm by 1.28 cm, for example, can hold
more than 400,000 of these “probe” molecules, allowing biologists
to carry out huge numbers of experiments at the same time. Researchers
are now able to ask questions across a whole genome at once instead of
just a few genes at a time, and perform research in hours that used to
take weeks, months – or even years.
Commercial potential of the DNA chip was evident from the early stages,
and Fodor quickly found himself entrepreneur in addition to scientist.
In 1993, Affymetrix, a spin-off of Affymax, was created, and by 1994 manufacturing
and sales were underway.
From its founding, Affymetrix relied heavily on government grants to secure
funding for its research, taking in over $30 million. The company also
netted $60 million in two rounds of private funding, and a further $90
million through its initial public offering (IPO) in 1996.
Though revenues were still slim for Affymetrix in the year of its IPO,
at just $25 million, by 2001 the company was shipping between 5,000 and
10,000 DNA chips per month. Today Affymetrix employs around 1,000 people,
and Fodor, now the company’s CEO, can boast of global revenues nearing
the $400 million mark.
From the beginning, Affymetrix established a reputation for methodically
and aggressively creating protection for its core technology through its
intellectual property portfolio. By the end of 2000, it held 150 patents
and earned ten percent of its income from license fees and royalties.
The patent for the DNA chip was filed in Europe in August 1994 (EP0476014).
It was a significant period in science: The Human Genome Project was in
full swing, receiving considerable attention both in the inner circles
of the scientific community as well as in the mainstream press.
Today Affymetrix’s products are used by pharmaceutical, biotechnology,
agrichemical, diagnostics and consumer products companies, as well as
academic, government and other non-profit research institutes.
The chips are being utilised in a number of basic and clinical areas of
research, including the detection of drug resistant mutations in infectious
organisms, the monitoring of multiple human genes for cancer associated
mutations, and for providing new insights into conditions ranging from
diabetes to heart disease.
It’s been called the “Rosetta Stone of Functional Genetics,”
and Fodor and Affymetrix have been credited with providing systems that
enable scientists to improve the quality of life.