Fluidigm Announces Technical Breakthrough That Solves Fundamental Obstacle with Microfluidics in Life Science
Wednesday June 13, 2:44 pm ET
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fluidigm Corporation, the leader in integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs), has achieved another first in microfluidics--a matrix chip architecture that enables both a high density of experiments (2,304 per chip) and effective mixing of nano-volume scale fluids. This advance is one of several that have established IFCs as a new paradigm for life-science research, much as the integrated circuit revolutionized electronics. The new chip will allow Fluidigm to enter end-point PCR detection markets, such as SNP genotyping, which require both high-throughput and fully mixed reaction components.
"Several companies have tried and failed to deliver nano-volume genotyping platforms that match the performance of the current favored macro-chemistries," said Fluidigm CEO Gajus Worthington. "We believe we know why, and, with this new architecture, we've overcome a major obstacle that has thwarted other microfluidics platforms. We hope to have this new chip in production soon." Additional milestones commercialized by Fluidigm include integrated channels and valves, reaction chambers, and "vias" (vertical connections between fluid networks).
Overcoming the obstacle of effective microfluidic mixing has been problematic because of the inherent behavior of fluids in microscopic environments. Dr. George Whitesides, an expert in the field of microfluidics, explains, "When fluid streams come together in a microchannel, they flow in parallel, without eddies or turbulence, and the only mixing that occurs is the result of the diffusion of molecules across the interface of fluids..." (Whitesides, 2006).
Fluidigm has resolved this problem through clever integration of features within the IFC. Reagent is loaded into a microchannel and contained by valves, in effect, as a "reagent slug". These containment valves then open to allow sample to be introduced into the same channel in contact with the slug. Valves and external pressure are then used to squirt the reagent/sample into a mixing chamber, resulting in highly uniform reagent-to-sample ratios and full mixing of fluids.
Fluidigm has fabricated the new IFC in a 48.48 architecture, i.e., a design that accepts 48 reagent inputs and 48 samples and creates 2,304 pairwise reactions. Fluidigm expects the number could quadruple to 9,216 (96.96), given the demonstrated capacity of the fabrication process.
Fluidigm foresees that IFCs will remove the logistical and technological road blocks that have hampered development of diagnostics and clinical trials based on molecular markers. Whereas laboratories have relied on thousands of microwell plates and hundreds of thousands of pipetting steps to run a large-scale study, the same study can now be accomplished with a few hundred IFCs and 1/40th the pipetting steps.
About Fluidigm Corporation
Fluidigm Corporation develops and distributes systems based on the unique properties of integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) to control fluids precisely on a nanoliter volume scale. The Company's vision is to create and to lead a new industry in which IFCs bring unparalleled efficiencies to the life science and allied fields. Based in South San Francisco, California, the Company is privately held and backed by premier investors: Versant Ventures, Euclid SR Partners, InterWest Partners, Alloy Ventures, Lehman Brothers Healthcare Fund, Bio*One Capital, Bruce Burrows, Lilly BioVentures, the Invus Group, SightLine Partners, AllianceBernstein, Wasatch Advisors and its affiliate, Cross Creek Capital, and GE Equity.
Whiteside, G.M., The origins and the future of microfluidics, Nature, V 442, 368-373. |
