October 14, 2011

Cytonome Announces High-Speed Rare Event Detection Milestone

Boston, MA /PRNewswire/

Cytonome, a developer and manufacturer of advanced cell purification systems, today announced a milestone in the high-speed detection of rare events.  Cytonome researchers have demonstrated robust identification of extremely rare target particles. Using Cytonome’s existing Gigasort™ parallel detection technology and cross contamination-free sample delivery system, the researchers were able to reliably identify 60 fluorescent target particles within a sample of 640 million non-fluorescent particles (corresponding to the identification of one target particle in 10 million total particles) in less than 1 hour.

Cytonome’s Gigasort™ technology is based upon a microfluidic chip that provides increased throughput compared to conventional flow cytometers by using multiple microsorters in parallel.  “This parallel technology may be useful in studies where reliable measurements of extremely rare target populations are important,” stated John Sharpe, Ph.D., Cytonome’s CEO. “We have capitalized on the very high throughput of our system to demonstrate the direct detection of very rare particles.  Such detection capabilities could be of value to the research, diagnostic and clinical flow cytometry communities,” added Dr. Larry Franks.

Cytonome, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has developed the high-speed Gigasort™ cell sorting system for use in cell sorting applications where high throughput, sterility and containment are required.  Cytonome’s Gigasort™ platform combines a high throughput cell sorting system with a fully-enclosed, sterilized, single-use disposable cartridge.  The product is currently available through the Cytonome Early Access Program (“EAP”).