Affymetrix
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. 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.
| 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$327 Million (FY 2009) |
| US$-30.6 Million (FY 2009) | |
| US$-23.9 Million (FY 2009) | |
| Total assets | US$612 Million (FY 2009) |
| Total equity | US$288 Million (FY 2009) |
Number of employees | 1,141 |
| Parent | Thermo Fisher Scientific |
| Website | https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/life-science/microarray-analysis.html |
In 1994, the company's first product under the "GeneChip" Affymetrix trademark, an HIV genotyping chip was introduced, and the company went public in 1996.
After incorporation, Affymetrix grew in part by acquiring technologies from other companies, including Genetic MicroSystems (slide-based Microarrays and scanners) and Neomorphic (for bioinformatics) in 2000, ParAllele Bioscience (custom SNP genotyping), USB/Anatrace (biochemical reagents) in 2008, Panomics (low to mid-plex applications) in 2008, and eBioscience (flow cytometry) in 2012. Affymetrix spun off Perlegen Sciences, as a discrete business focusing on wafer-scale genomics to characterize population-variance of genomic markers.
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.
On January 8, 2016, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced its acquisition of Affymetrix for approximately $1.3 billion, which closed on March 31, 2016.