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APRIL 2012 issue n°128THE DISRUPTIVE SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGIES MAGAZINEMEDTECH: MICROFLUIDICS & BIOMEMSFluidigm China opens its doorsFluidigm has begun direct service to customers in China.Through the establishment of a wholly-ownedFluidigm subsidiary in China in late January2012, officially known as Fluidigm (Shanghai)Instrument Technology, Fluidigm will improve servicesto its Chinese customer base and expects to rapidlybuild a strong presence in that country’s burgeoninglife science research community.Fluidigm is the creator and world’s leading supplier ofintegrated fluidic circuits. Fluidigm microfluidic chips,systems, assays and other reagents enable geneticanalysis that in many instances were previouslyimpractical. To help its customers achieve and exploitadvances in life science research, agriculturalbiotechnology, or Ag-Bio, and molecular diagnostics,Fluidigm provides robust systems that deliver highthroughput and simpler workflows at decreased costs.Fluidigm microfluidic systems overcome many of thelimitations of conventional laboratory systems byintegrating a vast number of fluidic components onto asingle microfabricated chip. Fluidigm technologyenables its customers to perform and measurethousands of sophisticated biochemical reactions onsamples smaller than the content of a single cell, whileutilizing minute volumes of reagents and samples.Similarly, for next generation DNA sequencing,Fluidigm systems enable rapid preparation of multiplesamples in parallel at low cost.www.fluidigm.comFluidigm's 96.96 Dynamic Array microfluidic chipconducts 9,216 biology experiments at one time.(Courtesy of Fluidigm Corporation)GE Healthcare completes acquisition of SeqWright, expanding capabilities infast growing molecular diagnostic segmentGE Healthcare, a unit of GE, announced today that it has acquired SeqWright, a provider of nucleic acid sequencing andother genomic services.The acquisition adds complementary genomicscapabilities to Clarient, a unit of GE Healthcareand a leader in the fast-growing moleculardiagnostics sector. The deal also provides a platformfor Clarient to expand its clinical diagnostic offeringsto include next generation sequencing. Financialterms of the acquisition were not disclosed.“Understanding how genetic variation at the molecularlevel impacts disease is critical in the continueddiscovery and development of new and more effectivetherapies, and increasingly in the management ofpatient care through the use of more precise diagnostictests” said Pascale Witz, President and CEO, GEHealthcare, Medical Diagnostics.“Combining the expertise and capabilities of the twocompanies will enable GE Healthcare to offer asubstantially wider range of services to thebiopharmaceutical, diagnostic and research industriesand eventually to patients and health care providers.”Molecular diagnostics provide precise informationabout a patient’s disease and can help doctors decideon the best treatment. The rapid increase in theincidence of cancer worldwide, together with advancesin specific cancer-focused therapies, is drivingsignificant demand for molecular diagnostics.As biopharma companies continue to develop largeportfolios of increasingly targeted therapies, the needfor fast, accurate and cost effective sequencingtechnologies and services to determine the geneticprofile of patient samples becomes vital to clinicaltrials and the development of companion diagnostics.SeqWright has an extensive history of projects thatfocus on clinical trial and regulatory support forcompanion diagnostic submissions. Thecomplementary capabilities of Clarient & SeqWrightwill allow the combined business to add immediateincremental value to existing pharmaceutical andbiotechnology partnerships throughout their drugdevelopment and companion diagnostic developmentefforts.Clarient provides pathologists and oncologists withaccess to diagnostic tests that shed light on thecomplex nature of various cancers by combininginnovative diagnostic technologies with pathologyexpertise to assess and characterize cancer. Clarientis focused on developing novel, proprietary diagnosticmarkers and tests for the profiling of breast, lung,colon, melanoma and blood-based cancers, to helpclinicians make informed decisions on how best totreat their patients. Given the increasing importanceof more targeted cancer diagnostics, Clarient is wellpositioned to bring differentiated, added-valuemolecular diagnostic products and services to market.Since 2007, Clarient’s revenues have grown at anapproximate 30 percent compounded annual growthrate.www.gehealthcare.comAbingdon Health raises £3 million and acquires controlling stake in Molecular VisionCreating an integrated diagnostics company.Abingdon Health, a specialist medical diagnosticscompany announces that it has received £3million of equity investment in a funding roundled by Imperial Innovations Group, a technologycommercialisation and investment group. The companywill use the funds to acquire a controlling 50.1% interestin Imperial's portfolio company Molecular Vision, aswell as investing in other projects in its portfolioincluding those from its joint venture with the Universityof Birmingham, Bioscience Ventures.Molecular Vision is developing a low-cost, lab-quality,point of care diagnostic test called BioLED, which willcomplement Abingdon's existing technologies. BioLEDis a miniaturised, easy-to-use, disposable device thatcan simultaneously test for multiple disease markersusing numerous single methods in the same device.Currently focused on areas of high disease burden suchas kidney function or cardiovascular disease, thedevice has the potential to be used across a widespectrum of healthcare and other applications wheredisposable, quantitative, simple to use on-site analysisis required.In November 2010, Abingdon launched a joint venturewith the University of Birmingham, BioscienceVentures, to commercialise intellectual propertydeveloped at the University. Bioscience Ventures isdeveloping new diagnostic tools for conditions wherethere is currently unmet need in markets such asoncology, genetic diseases and platform technologieswith applications in many areas including infectiousdiseases, drug testing and veterinary. It currently hasthe following companies within its portfolio:• Serascience - developing fast, accurate point of caretests to aid the diagnosis of myeloma and relatedconditions;• Linear Diagnostics - focused on the development ofa platform technology based on linear dichroism whichis currently being applied to the multiplexed detectionof infectious disease agents in sepsis• Alta Bioscience - manufactures and sells specialitychemicals such as peptides and oligonucleotides andperforms amino-acid analysis and protein sequencingfor the pharmaceutical industry, food industry andacademia;• Bioscience Ventures is also working on a new urinetest for the diagnosis of adrenal cancerwww.molecularvision.co.ukCopyrights © Yole Développement SA. All rights reserved - Recycled paper9