FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WaferGen Bio-systems (Nasdaq:WGBS) announced that the Company will commence the commercial launch of the ICELL8™ Single-Cell System at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting taking place October 6-8, 2015, in Baltimore, MD. The system will create a new standard for single-cell analysis, enabling unbiased isolation of up to 1,800 single cells on a single chip. The system includes an imaging station for rapid image capture and CellSelect™ software for automatic selection of cells of interest for further processing for RNA sequencing. The system also allows researchers to run multiple samples on a single chip, enabling applications that require investigation under uniform conditions.
"We are pleased that the ICELL8 Single-Cell System will now be available to deliver what the single-cell research community has requested: greater cell isolation capabilities, control over the selection of isolated cells and the ability to run multi-sample experiments," said Rollie Carlson, CEO of WaferGen.
The ICELL8 Single-Cell System provides the following:
- Power – Poisson distribution for isolation of up-to 1,800 single-cells on a single chip using multi-sample nano-liter dispense technology that accommodates cell sizes from 5-100um in a single sample. The rapid and simple cell isolation and imaging protocol ensures that multiple chips can be processed in a single 8-hour day.
- Control – CellSelect software allows for complete user-guided selection, as well as automatic determination of wells having individual cells to select for down-stream applications.
- Insight – By enabling the analysis of up-to 8 samples on a single chip, complex experimental designs can now be accomplished in single-cell research.
"In order to conduct as thorough an evaluation of the ICELL8 Single-Cell System as possible, we sought both world-class early access collaborators who were experienced single cell researchers, as well as those just embarking on this exciting new frontier. We invited these researchers to test the system using challenging cell types, including cells directly from human subjects, and we were quite pleased to see the robust performance of the system under these conditions," said Dr. Maithreyan Srinivasan, WaferGen's Chief Technology Officer.
Extensive results with early access partners and in-house WaferGen research and development initiatives presented at the Single Cell Genomics 2015 conference demonstrated the system's performance and utility, successfully processing various cell types, including live single neurons, human tumor cells, mouse tumor cells and nuclei. Further, the system has been shown to detect rare cell types with minimal sequencing costs, allowing researchers to more accurately interrogate complex samples to find the genomic information critical to their research. The ICELL8 Single-Cell System is the first single-cell analysis system to offer the scale of isolation, the control of cell selection and the openness of study design to truly expand single-cell analysis.
Order information will be available at the ASHG conference.
About WaferGen
WaferGen Bio-systems, 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.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the "safe harbor" created by those sections. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate" or other comparable terms. Forward-looking statements in this press release may address the following subjects among others: statements regarding the sufficiency of our capital resources, expected operating losses, expected revenues, expected expenses, expected cash usage, our expectations regarding our development of future products including single cell analysis technologies and our expectations concerning our competitive position and business strategy. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, as a result of various factors including those risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors and in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections of our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We urge you to consider those risks and uncertainties in evaluating our forward-looking statements. We caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as otherwise required by the federal securities laws, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to publicly release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein (or elsewhere) to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.