Fluidigm Corporation
today announced it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Bayer CropScience
to supply integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) and instrumentation to Bayer CropScience's
global operations. Bayer CropScience will be using Fluidigm technology to conduct
marker-assisted breeding, genetic analysis in its molecular breeding program
and quality control on its vegetable seeds.
“Fluidigm is delighted to be a global supplier to Bayer CropScience.
Our technology is perfectly suited to help them develop and take-to-market the
highest-quality seeds for field and vegetable crops,” said Gajus Worthington,
president and chief executive officer of Fluidigm. “We are committed to
helping Bayer CropScience meet the ever-increasing demands for high-quality
food supplies throughout the world.”
While many seed producers are using molecular breeding techniques, the capacity
of the available test systems has been limited. Fluidigm’s technology
increases output more than ten-fold and reduces the cost-per-data point to a
mere fraction obtainable with standard 384 well plates for "high-throughput"
genotyping. “Until recently, breeders throughout the world could only
dream of such a technique, yet now Fluidigm is making this a reality,”
Worthington explained.
Fluidigm provides molecular breeders with BioMark™ and EP1™ systems,
along with Fluidigm's microfluidic-based Dynamic Array™ IFCs to provide
superior data quality, a fast and easy workflow, and significantly higher throughput
and cost savings for high-throughput SNP genotyping studies.
Traditionally in a breeding experiment, new crops had to be grown, traits selected,
plants cross-bred, and then seeds grown again to maturity to check the results.
After each cross-breeding, the perfect plant had to be identified out of many
thousands that had been bred with exactly the same desired characteristics.
This research could easily spread over years or even decades. With molecular
breeding techniques, breeders are now able to dramatically decrease cost and
timelines to select the best seeds for the marketplace.
Fluidigm develops, manufactures and markets proprietary Integrated Fluidic
Circuit (IFC) systems that significantly improve productivity in life science
research. Fluidigm’s IFCs enable the simultaneous performance of thousands
of sophisticated biochemical measurements in extremely minute volumes. These
“integrated circuits for biology” are made possible by miniaturizing
and integrating liquid handling components on a single microfluidic device (IFC).
Fluidigm’s systems, consisting of instrumentation, software and single-use
chips, increase throughput, decrease costs and enhance sensitivity compared
to conventional laboratory systems. Fluidigm products have not been cleared
or approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a diagnostic and
are only available for research use.