Not sure what kind of marketing strength AVIVA has, but this technology competes directly with a recent launch by MDCC for their FLIPR platform.
>>SAN ANTONIO and SAN DIEGO, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- AVIVA Biosciences Corporation announced today its planar patch-clamp biochip, SealChip(TM), was the subject of three scientific presentations at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, currently being held in San Antonio, Texas.
Planar patch-clamp biochips have been developed by AVIVA to improve ion channel research. The traditional patch-clamp technique is a low throughput, labor intensive, and costly manual process. Planar patch-clamp biochips provide unparalleled throughput, high information content, and ease of operation. Additionally, planar patch-clamps can be marketed as cost- effective solutions for drug discovery and screening activities. AVIVA markets SealChip as a high-end product to address the need for high-quality planar patch-clamp recordings.
"There has been a longstanding need in the pharmaceutical and academic communities for an alternative to manual ion channel testing," stated Norrie Russell, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of AVIVA. "While ion channels represent nearly 25% of all potential drug targets, only 5% of marketed therapies target ion channels. Recent advances in deciphering the human genome have uncovered many ion channel targets that need to be researched for potential therapeutic uses. Increasing the throughput and quality of ion channel research will lead to new and improved treatments for a wide range of diseases. We believe SealChip is already on its way to becoming the leading tool for drug researchers and developers."
Dr. Jia Xu's presentation at the Society's satellite session on February 28 was titled "SealChip technology for high-content patch-clamp screening." Dr. Xu, Director of Ion Channel Research at AVIVA, discussed the evolution of SealChip technology and its development into a single-use disposable biochip cartridge that now allows scientists to conduct detailed research on up to 16 individual cells in parallel, when used with the PatchXpress 7000 from Axon Instruments, with the capability of performing many hundreds of measurements per day. The data collected with this planar patch-clamp biochip is of very high quality, due to SealChip's proprietary physical and chemical design.
Dr. Antonio Guia, Principal Scientist, AVIVA, presented at the Society's Platform Session on March 5 at 10:30 a.m. His presentation, Number 2383-Plat, is titled "High success rate and high-content voltage clamp on planar chips using CHO cells." Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are one of the most commonly used cell lines in pharmaceutical drug screening, as they can be manipulated to express many different types of ion channel proteins. Dr. Guia described a landmark study where SealChip enables successful high-fidelity recordings of ion channel function from isolated CHO cells for more than 15 minutes on each cell, and with greater than 75% success rate. By obtaining a very high success rate with SealChip and CHO cells, AVIVA holds the lead in quality in the ion channel patch-clamp market.
SealChip was also the subject of a poster presentation titled "Single channel recordings from mammalian cells on a chip," by Dr. Maria Spassova. The poster, Number 1437-Pos, was presented by Dr. Xu on March 3 from 1:45 PM - 3:45 p.m. Dr. Spassova successfully recorded single-channel ionic currents with AVIVA's SealChip, a major breakthrough in automated ion channel research. Single-channel recordings allow the scientific community to see the opening and closing events of one single ion channel protein molecule. This powerful technique, made readily accessible by SealChip, will be extremely attractive to academic and pharmaceutical researchers alike.
SealChip is the exclusive biochip at the heart of the PatchXpress(TM) 7000 instrument, which is developed and marketed by Axon Instruments Inc. The PatchXpress7000 is the first fully automated high-quality ion channel screening system to appear on the market. SealChip and PatchXpress7000 together will revolutionize ion channel research and high-throughput screening. The two companies believe scientists who use the AVIVA and Axon technologies will more quickly and more efficiently identify and develop new and less toxic compounds, fueling product pipelines.
The Biophysical Society has over 7,000 members in 45 countries. The Society's mission is to support the development and dissemination of knowledge pertaining to biophysics.
AVIVA Biosciences
Based in San Diego, Calif., AVIVA Biosciences Corporation develops enabling drug discovery and diagnostic technologies by integrating chemistry and cell biology into biochips. Key application areas include electrophysiology research, ion channel drug screening, and rare-cell isolation.<<
Cheers, Tuck |
