December 11, 2008: Affymetrix Inc., a manufacturer of DNA microarrays, has announced that its technology was used by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to develop a molecular diagnostic test to help diagnose genetic defects in patients with inheritable forms of jaundice, the company announced in a news release.

Until now, evaluation has frequently determined the extent of liver injury in patients with jaundice. Cincinnati Children’s intends the Jaundice Chip, a custom microarray, to help expand diagnoses to include genetic causes, and more precisely identify patients at high risk for progressive liver disease.

A team of scientists led by Dr. Jorge Bezerra, professor of pediatrics and director of gastroenterology research at Cincinnati Children’s, designed the Jaundice Chip. In a study published in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Gastroenterology, Bezerra reported the Jaundice Chip is highly effective in detecting the five most common genetic mutations in children with inherited causes of jaundice. Those five diseases represent about half of all pediatric chronic liver disease cases.