The companies' chips, each about the size of a 35-mm slide, use microfluidic integrated circuitry to microscopically perform all the liquid handling and biochemical processing needed for sample analysis. They perform sample processing and accommodate a variety of ligand-binding assays and molecular separation methods, including electrophoresis, chromatography, and molecular sieving. Another benefit of the chips' design is that each test consumes only minuscule volumes of sample and reagent. Sample volumes can be as small as 10 pl, a critical advantage when only a small amount of sample is available. Both companies have expressed interest in partnering with multiple diagnostics manufacturers through the use of nonexclusive agreements.
Caliper has yet to sign an agreement with a diagnostics manufacturer.
Soane is collaborating with an unnamed pharmacetical company on a similar drug-discovery project. According to the companies' experts, almost any immunodiagnostic or DNA-based test could conceivably be run on a chip. The cost-effective candidate tests are those for which an immediate quantitative result would provide a significant health benefit. I think that's the nearest-term diagnostic product opportunity. Both companies say development of such an analyzer is quite feasible.