San Diego

A leading company in the International HapMap Project, a collaboration aiming to map genetic variation in the human genome, is embroiled in a high-stakes legal battle.

At $120 million, HapMap is one of the largest genetics projects since the sequencing of the human genome. Researchers plan to use five separate technologies to identify patterns of genetic variation that affect disease and health (see Nature 412, 105; 2001). Microarray technology developed by Illumina of San Diego, California, will be used in the United States, Britain and Canada to produce about half of the HapMap data.

But Illumina faces a legal demand from biotechnology giant Applera, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, for $30 million in damages — slightly more than Illumina's operating expenses for last year.

Applera's subsidiary company Applied Biosystems in Foster City, California, invested $10 million in Illumina in 1999 as part of a plan to develop new genotyping technologies. Illumina says that Applera failed to fulfil its contractual obligations, such as providing reagents, and over the past year both firms have been developing their own technologies.

Last December, Applera sought to resolve the dispute through arbitration. Fearing that it could lose the rights to continue work on its core technology, Illumina filed a suit against Applera alleging that the arbitration was intended to put it out of business. The arbitration was blocked by a state court in San Diego in February, but Applera has since filed a counter-suit. Illumina says that Applera is demanding $30 million in return for work on the collaboration and its initial investment.

Illumina has informed its shareholders that the litigation could have an “adverse affect on its business, financial conditions and results of operations” if it is unable to defend itself successfully.

Timothy Kish, Illumina's vice-president and chief financial officer, told Nature that the legal action will not stop the company supplying its microarray technology to HapMap scientists. But lawyers for the company said the case could have a severe impact on the HapMap project.

Applera officials declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying that the firm's intention was to protect its investment, not to interfere with scientific research.

Researchers on HapMap projects in the United States and Britain say they are only vaguely aware of the litigation. “Potentially, we are concerned,” says David Bentley, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, UK, although he adds that he is confident that Illumina will be able to honour its agreements.