The collaboration will initially focus on developing diagnostic tests for genetic variations linked to heart attack, type 2 diabetes and breast cancer.
The alliance will employ Illumina's platform for high-multiplex single- nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping to develop tests for gene variants DeCode has previously shown to have impact on the risk of a growing number of common diseases with major public health impact.
The companies will share development costs and split the profits from sales of the diagnostics tests.
“This alliance enables us to strengthen our global leadership in using human genetics to discover and develop better medicine – accelerating our target discovery work and enabling us to generate near-term product revenue from the development of diagnostics,” said Kari Stefansson, CEO of DeCode.