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Fluidigm and Stemgent Awarded One of CIRM’s First Grants to the Biotech Industry

California’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency, has awarded Fluidigm Corporation and Stemgent, Inc. a grant to develop a cell culture chip (C2C) and support system that will help researchers accelerate stem cell research in California.

The new integrated fluidic circuit (IFC) and system will help scientists identify stem cell culture and differentiation conditions, as well as genes and molecules impacting stem cell renewal and reprogramming.

“These awards represent the entry of the biotechnology industry into CIRM-funded initiatives to accelerate progress,” said Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, in a press release from the organization.

“Reprogramming a patient’s differentiated cells – such as skin cells – into stem cells overcomes the inherent ethical and immunological barriers to therapeutic usage of embryonic stem cells,” noted Marc Unger, Fluidigm’s chief scientific officer. “We believe the C2C IFC would be an enabling tool for stem cell researchers. By designing and building a stem cell-specific microfluidic chip in conjunction with a Fluidigm system we can substantially reduce the complexity and cost of fundamental stem cell research.”

Fluidigm teamed with Stemgent, of San Diego, California, to secure this grant. Stemgent is a leading provider of proprietary stem cell reagents and tools and will be applying their expertise in stem cell science to Fluidigm’s system to combinatorially screen genetic and chemical reagents for more efficient, reliable conditions for differentiated cell reprogramming.

“The recent discovery that over-expression of a few genes can reprogram fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells opens the door to the generation of individual-specific pluripotent cells. This technique could make personalized medicine and personalized therapy possible,” explained Stephen Chang, chief scientific officer of Stemgent.

Reprogrammed cells can be used in cell based therapy, tissue or organ repair, and potentially even organ reconstruction. Understanding what causes stem cells to differentiate into a desired type of cell will direct the development of therapeutic applications. Thus, this tool will help both determine conditions to convert differentiated cells into stem cells and develop therapies using the resulting stem cells.

The proof-of-concept for creating this microfluidic chip and system was published by Gomez-Sjoberg et. al.1 based on work in the laboratory of Stephen Quake at Stanford University. They demonstrated a powerful capability for programmable cell culture and stimulation in a laboratory setting, but in a form factor that was difficult to replicate.

Over two years under the conditions of the CIRM grant, Fluidigm expects to create an IFC-based system that can seed controllable chambers with selected cells. These chambers will be able to feed the cells, provide media exchange and provide an automated means to dose cells with different reagents. The cells will be analyzed using time-lapse microscopic images in both transmitted light and fluorescence.

About Fluidigm

Fluidigm develops, manufactures and markets proprietary Integrated Fluidic Circuit (IFC) systems that significantly improve productivity in life science research. Fluidigm’s IFCs enable the simultaneous performance of thousands of sophisticated biochemical measurements in extremely minute volumes. These “integrated circuits for biology” are made possible by miniaturizing and integrating liquid handling components on a single microfabricated device (chip). Fluidigm’s IFC systems, consisting of instrumentation, software and single-use IFCs, increase throughput, decrease costs and enhance sensitivity compared to conventional laboratory systems. Fluidigm products have not been cleared or approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a diagnostic and are only available for research use.

For more information, please visit www.Fluidigm.com.

About Stemgent

Stemgent moves stem cell science forward by providing proprietary reagents and tools developed by some of the world's leading stem cell scientists. Stemgent’s product offering has been specifically optimized for and screened against stem cells, and includes small molecules for pluripotency, self-renewal, and differentiation, as well as cytokines, antibodies, transfection reagents, and more. Stemgent’s latest innovations include viral vectors encoding transcription factors necessary for the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This unique product mix is designed to serve researchers who study stem cell biology, regenerative medicine, and those who use cells derived from stem cells as tools to advance their understanding of major diseases. With dual headquarters in Boston, MA, and San Diego, CA, Stemgent is well positioned to serve these major research markets.

For more information, please visit www.stemgent.com.

1. Gomez-Sjoberg R, Leyrat AA, Pirone DM, Chen CS, Quake SR. "Versatile, Fully Automated, Microfluidic Cell Culture System" Anal. Chem. 79 (22), 8557-8563 (2007).

Stemgent and the Stemgent logo are trademarks of Stemgent, Inc.

Fluidigm, the Fluidigm logo, Topaz, BioMark, and NanoFlex are trademarks of Fluidigm Corporation and all other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts:

Fluidigm Corp.
Howard High, 650-266-6081
510-786-7378 (mobile)
or
Stemgent, Inc.
Sarah Neugebauer, 617-245-0011
858-353-4482 (mobile)

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