Biotrove's Living Chip cuts genotyping time
Chip microfluidic technology used to generate genotyping data from
human genomic samples. Their high-density array chip promises to
hike the throughout rate for this type of experiment, writes Wai
Lang Chu.
The array chip designed for polymerase chain action (PCR)-based genomic assays was used to study human genomic samples. The assays were transferred from microplates into the Living Chip using BioTrove's proprietary reformatting technology.
The results found an 88.5 per cent assay pass rate with an average genotyping call rate of 96.3 per cent. In addition, the results were 99.4 per cent concordant with the genotype calls from the HapMap project - a partnership of scientists and funding agencies worldwide committed to developing a record of genes associated with human disease and response to pharmaceuticals.
BioTrove's SNP genotyping application enables the analysis of 10s to 1,000s of SNPs at 25nl reaction volumes, providing researchers with flexibility regarding the numbers of SNPs and the number of samples to analyse. The chip is compatible with existing slide scanners and software.
Patrick Carroll, chief business officer of BioTrove said: "This successful pilot study is the first step in our commercial strategy of the Living Chip."
"As researchers are pursuing genome-scale experiments, our expertise provides them with the technology and tools to conduct such complex experiments in a simple and cost-effective manner."
BioTrove's Living Chip commercial strategy is to initially pursue applications in genetics. In the long term, the company plans to introduce a family of proprietary products to enable additional high value applications such as transcription analysis.
"The Living Chip is in the research and testing phase at the moment and should be available commercially in the autumn. Right now similar technology on the market retails at $4-500 per chip. I'm confident we can achieve a much lower price for our customers."
"The Living Chip is primarily a research tool and will be marketed as one. It will be commercially available to academic institutions and laboratories as soon as the technology is sound."
BioTrove is a biotechnology company formed in 2000 that focuses on advancing life science and drug discovery research by leveraging revolutionary micro- and nano-scale technologies.
Carroll added: "In the genomic testing market and SNP technology the leading names include Illumina with its Bead Array technology, ParAllele and Affymetrix's GeneChip. We hope to be competing with them very soon"
"Biotrove are a company experiencing constant growth. This is a company whose technology is going to make quite an impact in the coming months."
