Halifax startup Athletigen Technologies partners with California DNA analysis company

Athletigen Technologies Inc., a Halifax-based startup that provides insight based on genetic information to fitness enthusiasts, high performance athletes, coaches and health professionals, has announced a global partnership with Santa Clara, California’s Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFX) to use its Affymetrix Axiom genotyping platform for DNA analysis.

“Affymetrix’ Axiom platform offers the gold standard for genotyping analysis and, when coupled with our highly curated content selection and interpretative analysis, ensures precision and accuracy for our personalized sports genetics reports to create a blueprint for improving human athletic performance,” said Athletigen Technologies CEO Jeremy Koenig, PhD.

Athletigen’s DNA microarray analyzes about 850,000 variants related to human performance in a swab of saliva, the data from which is fed into Athletigen’s proprietary bioinformatic algorithm which then provides an actionable report for optimizing a user’s routing through their online profile.

“We are pleased to support Athletigen’s sports genetic offering that empowers athletes and coaches to better understand their athletic traits,” said senior vice president and general manager of the Genotyping Business Unit of Affymetrix Laurent Bellon. “Our high fidelity Axiom genotyping platform, due to its high throughput capability, industry-leading genotyping performance, and affordability, is preferred by many large scale biobank projects worldwide and by emerging consumer genomics enterprises for genetic analysis of consumer bio-specimens.”

Incorporated in 2014, Athletigen Technologies is led by CEO Jeremy Koenig, a former track athlete at Dalhousie University. Athletigen is currently housed in the Volta Labs startup incubator in Halifax.

Affymetrix has 1,100 employees with manufacturing facilities in Cleveland, San Diego, Vienna and Singapore, with sales and distribution operations worldwide.