Cell Dispensing Using the sciFLEXARRAYER for Miniaturized Cell-based Assays
(PresseBox) (Berlin,, )Holger Eickhoff, CEO of Scienion AG, states: “Solutions for the miniaturization and automation of cell-based assays are in growing demand within pharmaceutical and biotech companies. With our ultra low level liquid handling system sciFLEXARRAYER we enable scientists to handle single cells or low numbers of cells.”
Using the sciFLEXARRAYER, the Laboratoire Biopuces in Grenoble, France, developed a “DropChip” cell array on a glass slide for DNA and siRNA transfection combined with drug screening (Schaack et al., NanoBiotechnology, Volume 1, 2005, 183-189). Dr. Béatrice Schaack from Laboratoire Biopuces at the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) states: “Using the sciFLEXARRAYER, less than 100 cells per assay can be tested, a nano-amount of drugs can be tested and single-cell phenotypes can be analyzed after contact with nucleic acids or chemicals.”
Scienion’s recent presentation of the sciFLEXARRAYER at the “LabAutomation 2006”, the world’s leading conference and exhibition on emerging laboratory technologies in Palm Springs, California, generated great interest among the participants followed up by explicit inquiries of potential customers. Upcoming events with the opportunity to find out more about the sciFLEXARRAYER and its various applications are “Screening Europe” in Prague, Czech Republic, February 20-22, and “Analytica” in Munich, Germany, April 24-28, 2006.
About Laboratoire Biopuces at the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission)
Dr. Béatrice Schaack is coordinating a project funded by the European Community for the evaluation of cell-based assays in drops for toxicological studies. The aim of the “TOXDROP” two years project is to develop a Cell-on-Chip technology allowing the monitoring of various phenotypes illustrating cytotoxicity which can be characterized in highly parallel cell-based reactions on a glass slide. The surface of this biochip achieves the necessary precision in the formation of the cellular nano-drops and enables the high content analysis of cell cultures based on high fluorescent microscopy detection as well as mass spectrometry phenotypic signatures.