Affymetrix
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California, U.S. |
Number of locations | 11 |
Key people | Stephen Fodor, Frank Witney (CEO) |
| Revenue |  US$327 Million (FY 2009)[1] |
 US$-30.6 Million (FY 2009)[1] | |
Net income | US$-23.9 Million (FY 2009)[1] |
| Total assets | US$612 Million (FY 2009)[2] |
| Total equity | US$288 Million (FY 2009)[2] |
Number of employees | 1,141[3] |
| Parent | Thermo Fisher Scientific |
| Website | https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/life-science/microarray-analysis.html |
Affymetrix is now Applied Biosystems, a brand of DNA microarray products sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific that originated with an American biotechnology research and development and manufacturing company of the same name.[4] The Santa Clara, California-based Affymetrix, Inc. now a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific was co-founded by Alex Zaffaroni and Stephen Fodor. Stephen Fodor and his group, based on their earlier development of methods to fabricate DNA microarrays using semiconductor manufacturing techniques.[5][6]
In 1994, the company's first product under the "GeneChip" Affymetrix trademark, an HIV genotyping chip was introduced,[7] and the company went public in 1996.[8]
After incorporation, Affymetrix grew in part by acquiring technologies from other companies, including Genetic MicroSystems (slide-based Microarrays and scanners)[citation needed] and Neomorphic (for bioinformatics) in 2000,[9] ParAllele Bioscience (custom SNP genotyping),[citation needed] USB/Anatrace (biochemical reagents) in 2008,[10] Panomics (low to mid-plex applications) in 2008,[citation needed] and eBioscience (flow cytometry) in 2012.[11] Affymetrix spun off Perlegen Sciences,[12][when?] as a discrete business focusing on wafer-scale genomics to characterize population-variance of genomic markers.[13]
In January 2014, the Food and Drug Administration approved Affymetrix's postnatal blood test, CytoScan Dx Assay, looking at whole-genome correlates of congenital abnormalities and other causes of childhood developmental delay.[14]
On January 8, 2016, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced its acquisition of Affymetrix for approximately $1.3 billion,[15] which closed on March 31, 2016.[16]
History
Affymetrix, Inc. was spun-off from Affymax Research Institute by Alex Zaffaroni in 1993, and was eventually based in Santa Clara, California, United States.[17] It began as a unit in Affymax N.V. in 1991 under Fodor and his group.[17][18] In the late 1980s, that group had developed methods for fabricating DNA microarrays, under the "GeneChip" Affymetrix trademark, using semiconductor manufacturing techniques.[citation needed] The company's first product, an HIV genotyping GeneChip, was introduced in 1994[citation needed] and the company went public in 1996.[19]
