FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 16, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WaferGen Bio-systems (Nasdaq:WGBS) presented results from its Single-Cell System at the Single Cell Genomics Conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The poster presentation included results from early access collaborators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The landmark results demonstrated the ability of WaferGen's Single-Cell System to isolate thousands of single cells and process specific cells of interest for downstream analysis using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).
The results demonstrated that WaferGen's Single-Cell system can consistently isolate up to 1,800 single cells per chip and also identify and process individual cells using its automated image analysis software. The Single-Cell system was shown to be capable of isolating various cell types, including mixtures of K562, U-87 MG, Z138 and Hela cells in experiments designed to mimic the heterogeneous cell types present in complex samples. In additional experiments where two cell types were mixed to contain approximately 1% of one of the cell types, the Single-Cell System was able to unambiguously identify wells that contained each cell type as evidenced by the analysis of NGS data from ~100,000 sequencing reads per cell.
Data presented in early access experiments performed at Dr. Nicholas Navin's laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that over a thousand SKBR3 cells (a triple negative breast cancer cell line), as well as nuclei isolated from these cells, can be isolated and dispensed. In additional early access experiments highlighted at the conference, the WaferGen Single-Cell System was capable of isolating and selecting over 13,000 single cells in less than 8 hours using the system's automated dispensing and image analysis software.
"The WaferGen Single Cell System was used to dispense over 1,000 single neurons processed from fresh mouse brains and appears to be a very promising new technology for high throughput single cell analyses," said Dr. Sten Linnarsson, Professor of Molecular Systems Biology at the Karolinska Institutet.
WaferGen's Single-Cell System has been successfully used to process a wide range of cell types, including live single neurons, human tumor cells, mouse tumor cells and nuclei, demonstrating unbiased cell dispensing. The system also runs up to eight samples of various cell types and sizes on a single chip, thus allowing applications such as therapeutic dose determination and gene insertion/deletion efficacy studies. The proficiency of the system to process a broad range of samples coupled with the ability to detect rare cell types with minimal sequencing costs allows researchers to more accurately interrogate complex samples, including tumor samples, to identify the cell types and genomic information critical to their research.
"We are extremely pleased with these results, both those presented at the conference, and those being generated at our various early access collaboration sites. We continue to expect the full commercial launch of our Single-Cell System in the fourth quarter of 2015," said Rollie Carlson, President and CEO of WaferGen.
For further information, please visit www.wafergen.com/single-cell.
About WaferGen
WaferGen Biosystems, Inc. is a biotechnology company that offers innovative genomic technology solutions for single-cell analysis and clinical research. The single cell analysis platform is a revolutionary system which can isolate thousands of single cells and processes specific cells for analysis, including Next Generation Sequencing. The system can also enable processing of up to eight samples by partitioning the chip into 8 sections. The SmartChip platform can be used for profiling and validating molecular biomarkers, and can perform massively-parallel single-plex PCR for one-step target enrichment and library preparation for clinical NGS. These technologies offer a powerful set of tools for biological analysis at the molecular and single-cell level in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, and clinical laboratory industries.
About SCG 2015
Building on the success of the single cell genomics meeting at the Karolinska Institutet in September 2014 and at the Weizmann Institute in 2013, the third Single Cell Genomics meeting September 16-18, 2015 at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Single cell genomics is rapidly emerging as a revolutionary technology transforming many fields of biological research. Through its many applications (single cell genome sequencing, single cell transcriptomics, various single cell epigenetic profiling approaches), researchers can characterize the genetic and functional properties of individual cells in their native conditions, leading to numerous experimental and clinical opportunities.
The conference will bring together many of the pioneers and leading experts in the field to three days of extensive, interdisciplinary and informal discussion. The meeting will include presentations from thirty invited leaders and several selected abstracts, a poster session and many opportunities for interaction.
Forward Looking Statements
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