You will have a better idea than I do, but this does not look great for CALP -
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Fluidigm Corporation and The California Institute of Technology announced today major advancements in complexity and function of microfluidic device technology. Using its novel fabrication technology, the MSL(TM) (multi-layer soft lithography) process, Fluidigm has demonstrated a fluidic microprocessor that can run 20,000 PCR assays at sub-nanoliter volumes, the smallest documented volume of massively parallel PCR assays. This technology is being developed in the near term to run over 200,000 parallel assays. Fluidigm believes this fluidic architecture will make significant contributions in cancer detection research as well as in large scale genetic association studies.
At the same time, a group led by Dr. Stephen Quake, Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology and co-founder of Fluidigm, published an article in Science today describing a paradigm for large scale integration of microfluidic devices. These devices are capable of addressing and recovering the contents from one among thousands of individual picoliter chambers on the microfluidic chip.
Using new techniques of multiplexed addressing, Quake's group built chips with as many as 6,000 integrated microvalves and up to 1000 individually addressable picoliter chambers. These chips were used to demonstrate microfluidic memories and tools for high throughput screening. Additionally, on a separate device with over 2000 microvalves, they demonstrated the ability to load two different reagents and perform distinct assays in 250 sub- nanoliter reaction chambers and then recover the contents.
"We now have the tools in hand to design complex microfluidic systems and, through switchable isolation, recover contents from a single chamber for further investigation. These next-generation microfluidic devices should enable many new applications, both scientific and commercial," said Dr. Quake.
"Together, these advancements speak to the power of MSL technology to achieve large scale integration and the ability to make a commercial impact in microfluidics," said Gajus Worthington, President and CEO of Fluidigm. "PCR is the cornerstone of genomics applications. Fluidigm's microprocessor, coupled with the ability to recover results from the chip, offers the greatest level of miniaturization and integration of any platform," added Worthington.
Fluidigm hopes to leverage these advancements as it pursues genomics and proteomics applications. Fluidigm has already shipped a prototype product for protein crystallization that transforms decades-old methodologies to a chip- based format, vastly reducing sample input requirements and improving cost and labor by orders of magnitude.
About Fluidigm
Microfluidics is one of the fastest growing sectors of the life science research market. An innovator in the microfluidic market, Fluidigm is dedicated to delivering on the promise of microfluidics through the commercialization of complete and enabling microfluidic systems that impact mission critical objectives within life science research. Fluidigm's initial customer base is in the drug discovery and life sciences arena; additional applications are envisioned for the drug delivery and diagnostics markets. Based in South San Francisco, California, Fluidigm is privately held and backed by premier investors including Euclid SR Partners, Lehman Brothers, Piper Jaffray Ventures, Versant Ventures and the Singapore EDB... |
