October, 2003 - This initial release of genotype data includes over 120,000 validated SNPs selected from both public SNP databases and the proprietary SNP database developed by Perlegen Sciences, Inc. This data is freely available, without any licensing, terms or conditions.

The SNPs were selected by testing a set of 545,000 SNPs across 54 people using GeneChip® DNA analysis arrays and choosing those SNPs that showed the highest accuracy and call rates and best distribution across the genome.

The 120,000 validated, genome-wide SNPs were genotyped in the same set of individuals, to aid researchers in studying the diversity of human variation and the genetic basis of disease and drug response.

Affymetrix is using this SNP data to develop a product that will genotype 100,000 SNPs in a single experiment. This product will leverage a novel, easy-to-use assay used in GeneChip Mapping 10K Array.

Future releases will include additional SNPs from the Perlegen database.