About CellASIC - News & Events


	Bringing Microfluidics to Life™
Home	Products	Technology	Orders	About Us

Company News

August 2, 2010: Two New Mammalian Culture Plates Released for ONIX System The M04O (open-top) and M04G (gradient) microfluidic cell culture plates are now available for the ONIX Perfusion System. These two plates were developed to meet the needs of researchers at leading academic institutes and biopharmaceutical companies. The M04O incorporates an open top perfusion chamber to allow direct cell dispensing into the culture region. This is particularly useful for larger cell types and aggregate cultures that do not easily flow through channels. The M04G plate creates long term stable diffusion gradients across the culture chamber for analysis of cell migration, chemotaxis, and other cell responses to gradients. The design enables switching between up to 9 gradient compositions, and is amenable to 2D and 3D culture.

July 8, 2010: CellASIC Awarded an R&D100 Award for the ONIX Microfluidic Perfusion System The R&D 100 Awards have long been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. For industry leaders, government labs, and academic institutions, the awards can be vital for gauging their efforts at commercialization of emerging technologies. And in winning an R&D 100 Award, developers often find the push their product needs to find success in the marketplace. “The R&D 100 Awards have always represented some of the most innovative concepts to reach the marketplace in the past year. 2010 is no exception, and we had a particularly strong field of entries for the judges to evaluate,” said Rita Peters, editorial director of R&D Magazine. http://www.rdmag.com/Awards/RD-100-Awards/2010/07/R-D-100-2010-Winners-Overview/ http://www.rdmag.com/Awards/RD-100-Awards/2010/08/A-healthy-home-for-cells-under-observation/

June, 2010: The National Institute of Genetics (Japan) publishes in Molecular and Cellular Biology using the ONIX Perfusion System. The research group of Dr. Hironori Niki at the Japanese National Institute of Genetics published a paper entitled "The DNA Damage Checkpoint Regulates a Transition between Yeast and Hyphal Growth in Schizosaccharomyces japonicus" in the June 2010 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The ONIX Microfluidic Perfusion System enabled the researchers to observe and control the transition between yeast and hyphae growth for the first time. These findings are an important advance in understanding cellular differentiation and signaling. Click here for the scientific article.

May 3, 2010: 2nd Generation ONIX Plates Announced CellASIC released its second generation ONIX microfluidic cell culture plates for live cell microscopy applications. This advance builds on the popular ONIX perfusion platform developed by CellASIC and in use by dozens of cutting edge research facilities worldwide. The 2nd generation format features 3 significant technological advances pioneered by CellASIC. First, the microfluidics real estate has been expanded to cover the entire area of a SBS standard microplate. This allows complex microfluidic designs not possible in previous iterations. Second, we adopted a customized plate format that mimics a standard microplate, but with unique features such as an enlarged imaging window to improve time-lapsed multi-chamber imaging, and a well layout that facilitates a wider range of experiment possibilities. Third, we enhanced our "application specific" product offering to encompass many different microfluidic plate designs (built on the same standard frame). CellASIC expects to continue adding additional microfluidic plates for the ONIX platform. Please contact us for design suggestions at info@cellasic.com.

March 15, 2010: CellASIC awarded NIH "Lab to Marketplace" SBIR grant CellASIC received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Institutes of Health to continue advancing its state-of-the-art microfluidics product development. Specifically, this grant will be used to complete a microfluidic liver array system for studying drug metabolism properties in vitro. This is critically important for biopharmaceutical advancement to avoid liver related injury in clinical testing and post-marketing. The SBIR funding will also allow CellASIC to further improve its industry leading microfabrication facilities to attain higher product quality, throughput, and yield.

January 26, 2010: CellASIC selected as one of 8 companies worldwide to present at the Association for Laboratory Automation's Innovation AveNew, January 25-27. CellASIC's innovative microfluidic cell culture products will be showcased at the Laboratory Automation exhibit hall, as well as a presentation on "Microfluidic Cell Culture Arrays."

January 20, 2010: CellASIC sponsors the 7th Advanced Imaging Methods Workshop, Berkeley, CA

January 12, 2010: CellASIC presents "Microfluidic 3D Cell Culture Array" at the CHI High Content Analysis Meeting, San Francisco, CA


December 6, 2009: CellASIC presents microfluidics advances at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting in San Diego, CA CellASIC presented two posters at the ASCB meeting: "Microfluidic Array for Live Cell Culture & Imaging" and "Microfluidic Array for 3D lrECM Culture of Cancer Cells." This work describes the latest advances to the company's industry leading microfluidic cell culture technology. For copies of the posters, please email info@cellasic.com

October 17, 2009: CellASIC presents at the North American Hepatocyte Research Association meeting at ISSX, Baltimore, MD Dr. Philip Lee of CellASIC was selected as one of 5 speakers to present at the symposium entitled "New Culture Systems and Platforms for Hepatocytes." This meeting highlighted the demand in the pharmaceutical industry for improved hepatocyte culture tools that are more predictive of the physiologic environment. CellASIC is addressing this problem by developing a microfluidic liver array capable of maintaining isolated hepatocytes in a liver like configuration for long periods of time with reduced cost and improved throughput. The company is honored to be recognized by this industry group as one of the leaders in the future of hepatocyte research.

October 2, 2009: MIT Lab Publishes Paper in PLoS Genetics Using ONIX Perfusion System Professor Narendra Maheshri of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering publishes a paper titled: "Epigenetic and Conventional Regulation Is Distributed among Activators of FLO11 Allowing Tuning of Population-Level Heterogeneity in Its Expression" in the scientific journal PLoS Genetics. The work details important new findings on how cell populations regulate phenotype. The work was conducted with the model yeast S. cerevisiae. The ONIX microfluidic perfusion system enabled the researchers to quantify expression states of individual cells over time during population growth, a type of experiment poorly addressed with existing methods.

September 14, 2009: New M16 Multiplexed Mammalian Cell Microfluidic Plate Released CellASIC is now shipping the M16 microfluidic perfusion plate. This is a major advance over previous versions, allowing 16 simultaneous perfusion experiments to be performed with programmable solution exchange. Similar to the M1 and M2 plates, the M16 enables cell biologists to precisely control the cell environment during live cell imaging experiments on high-end microscopes. By utilizing innovative microfluidics technology, the M series plates provide a superior method for maintaining live cells on the microscope stage-- allowing researchers to dig deeper into the inner functions of living cells like never before. "This new iteration of the M16 and M2 microfluidic plates is a significant advance for live cell imaging research," claims Philip Lee, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of CellASIC. "In addition to the industry leading technology we've been pioneering over the past 5 years, this new microfluidic product is incredibly easy to use. We improved the plate operation such that anyone comfortable with a pipet can now run complex microfluidic cell culture experiments with confidence." The M16 microfluidic plate is used with the CellASIC ONIX Perfusion System, the first-of-its kind instrument for microfluidic cell culture control. To experience this product for yourself, contact CellASIC for a free trial.

July 7, 2009: ONIX Platform featured in New Products by Photonics.com Photonics.com includes the ONIX Microfluidic Perfusion Platform in their July New Products section, highlighting the cutting-edge live cell imaging capabilities enabled by this technology. Click here to see the spot.

May 2, 2009: CellASIC sponsors the Bay Area Yeast Symposium, Stanford, CA, May 2 CellASIC is proud to sponsor the 2nd semiannual Bay Area Yeast and Other Fungi Symposium. This one day event featured talks from leading researchers at Stanford, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego. The presentations highlighted the importance of yeast cells as useful models for investigating fundamental pathways and mechanisms in biology. CellASIC is honored to be recognized by this esteemed group as a leading technology provider for live cell imaging.

April 18, 2009: CellASIC introduces an improved ONIX microincubation system CellASIC launched the newest version of the ONIX microfluidic perfusion system at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Denver. As with the previous version, this product enables industry leading flow control and media switching during live cell imaging experiments. Key upgrades include the implementation of a novel microincubation method, whereby temperature and CO2 are directly controlled on the microfluidic plate, eliminating the need for bulky enclosure or stage-top systems. The new microfluidic culture plates also provide a higher quality environment for mammalian cells, allow switching between 3 medium solutions, and enable the generation of a stable concentration gradient.

February 10, 2009: Image Solutions to distribute ONIX live cell imaging products in UK CellASIC Corporation enters an exclusive distribution agreement with UK-based Image Solutions Ltd. (Imsol) for sales and service of CellASIC’s ONIX research tools for live cell image analysis in the UK. Image Solutions Ltd, founded in 1993, focuses on high-quality consultancy for the digital imaging industry. The company has experienced tremendous success since its inception by forging partnerships with leading instrument providers such as Applied Precision, Diagnostic Instrument, Intracellular Imaging, and Olympus. “We are confident that Imsol’s expertise in live cell imaging technologies and dedication to customer relationships will lead to a successful product launch in the UK,” states Philip Lee, Ph.D., CEO of Cellasic. “Their experienced and technically specialized team will be well-equipped to serve our innovative microfluidic products.” “The distribution agreement with CellASIC complements our broad range of products in live cell imaging,” says Ian Corless, Managing Director of Imsol UK. “As a forward-looking company, we believe CellASIC’s products will bring another level of innovation to our current offering.” The CellASIC ONIX system is ideal for high magnification, timelapse microscopy studies of live cells. The ONIX incorporates CellASIC’s proprietary microfluidic design to deliver an automated, intuitive system for studying live cells under user defined perfusion conditions.

January 27, 2009: CellASIC presents "Automation Compatible Microfluidic Cell Culture System" at the Association for Laboratory Automation 2009 Meeting, Palm Springs, CA

January 15, 2009: CellASIC featured in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News: "Microfluidics Makes Strides to Fulfill Promise."



December 13, 2008: CellASIC exhibits the ONIX product line at the American Society for Cell Biology Meeting, San Francisco, CA

October 20, 2008: Dynamic cell culture system published in Lab on a Chip.

June 22, 2008: CellASIC exhibits the ONIX platform at the Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting (Toronto, Canada)

June 6, 2008: CellASIC sponsors North American Regional Pombe Meeting 2008 (Los Angeles, CA)

May 30, 2008: CellASIC presents on a microfluidic toxicity screening platform at the Life Sciences Venture Forum (Santa Clara, CA)

May 15, 2008: CellASIC awarded 3-year SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institutes Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program to develop microfluidic systems for cancer

April 15, 2008: ONIX Bacteria microfluidic plates available

April 1, 2008: CellASIC awarded 2-year NIH SBIR grant to develop a high throughput hepatocyte screening platform

March 17, 2008: CellASIC presents "A Microfluidic Array for Primary Hepatocyte Culture and Analysis" at the Society for Toxicology Annual Meeting

October 23, 2007:CellASIC Opens Microfluidics Manufacturing Facility

The CellASIC team is happy to announce the opening of its new Class 100 cleanroom in San Leandro, California. This facility will enable the company to improve the manufacturing capability of its microfluidic products. Since 2005, the company has been working on developing a novel production method for cell culture based microfluidic products.

"This facility allows us to integrate our proprietary manufacturing process into a state-of-the-art controlled environment," states Dr. Paul Hung, CTO of CellASIC. "This will directly result in higher yield and faster turnaround time in product manufacturing. The controlled environment also guarantees product reliability and robustness, permitting CellASIC to continue bringing the highest quality microfluidic tools to our customers."

The completion of the customized cleanroom represents a critical step towards the company's mission to develop and commercialize innovative microfluidic products for cell and tissue based applications. Funding for the facility was provided with help from a National Institutes of Health SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) grant to promote"Manufacturing Processes of Medical, Dental, and Biological Technologies."

August 27, 2007: Early Adoption of CellASIC's ONIX Platform for yeast exceeds expectations

Laboratories around the world are quickly integrating the new ONIX Imaging System into their research. Since its release, research facilities have adopted the ONIX technology at an astounding rate, including over 30 laboratories from Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, UCSF, Johns Hopkins University, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and more. Globally, ONIX Systems are being used at cutting-edge research facilities in England, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Switzerland, and France.

Scientists are praising the capabilities of the ONIX, pointing to its ease of use and innovative flow switching technology. Dr. Farzad Haerizadeh at Stanford uses the ONIX to look at FRET responses within individual engineered yeast cells and says, “CellASIC has developed a great solution for our live cell imaging needs. The ONIX not only places cutting-edge microfluidic technology in our hands, but saves us time on sample preparation and gives us improved quality and quantity of data.”

Other features that the ONIX brings to researchers, such as improved optical clarity, have also generated positive responses. “The microfluidic flow-chamber for yeast from CellASIC is great! It is easy to use and the optics are top-notch. The "optical trap" property of the flow-chamber is perhaps its best attribute; it keeps all of the yeast in the same focal plane,” said Steve Minkin, a University of Tennessee PhD Candidate in the Becker Lab, who uses fluid switching to observe changes in the localization of GFP-tagged protein. “It is hands-down the best flow chamber we’ve seen for studying yeast.”

The ONIX system represents the first microfluidic product commercialized by CellASIC Corporation. The company has been focused on research and development of cutting-edge microfluidic technology since it was founded in 2004 out of the UC Berkeley Department of Bioengineering. “Our basic premise is to make the highest quality microfluidics accessible to cell biologists in a user-friendly and affordable product line,” states Dr. Philip Lee, Director of R&D at CellASIC. “We are especially encouraged to see that our technology is enabling experiments that were never before possible.”

August 1, 2007: CellASIC receives 2-year NIH SBIR award to improve microfluidic cell array manufacturing

July 12, 2007: ONIX Yeast System Featured in Bioscience Technology

The ONIX Yeast System for live cell imaging was featured in the July Issue of Bioscience Technology Magazine. The product was spotlighted in the Editor’s Choice section of new innovative products.

Click Here to see the product release

June 27, 2007: CellASIC announces the ONIX™ Platform for live cell microscopy of yeast samples

CellASIC Corporation has developed the ONIX™ microfluidic system for live cell imaging of yeast samples. This represents the first and only product on the market that enables fluidic environment control during time-lapse imaging without sacrificing optical quality.

The innovative microfluidic approach provides distinct advantages over current methods. For example, agar pads are the standard for localization of yeast cells for time lapse imaging, but prevent fluidic addressing. Coated chamber slides allow fluidic access, but cannot stably maintain cells for high resolution microscopy over time. The CellASIC ONIX platform overcomes these limitations by implementing a microfluidic trap that holds yeast cells in perfect focus without obstructing fluid exchange. Furthermore, the integrated system streamlines the experiment process by reducing preparation time and providing more reliable results.

Yeast represents a biologically important model organism to study signaling pathways in living cells. Marc Green, an imaging specialist in Susan Forsburg’s lab at the University of Southern California (http://www.pombe.net), is using the CellASIC platform to investigate cell cycle and DNA replication in fission yeast in order to uncover mechanisms that influence human health, ranging from cancer development to infertility and birth defects.

According to Marc, “The CellASIC system is the first affordable solution we have found that will allow us to extensively manipulate the extracellular environment of our organism while imaging at high-resolution. Imagine trying to monitor a protein's location in a moving cell - this is practically impossible, and well beyond the capability of existing laboratory microscope tools. CellASIC has solved this problem. This product is easy to use, and provides the highest quality results I have seen in yeast.”

The benefits of the CellASIC product also resonate with scientists in the emerging field of cellular systems engineering. Noah Helman, a post-doc in Wendell Lim’s lab at the University of California, San Francisco (http://www.ucsf.edu/limlab), is applying the CellASIC platform to reengineering cellular pathways to generate novel response profiles in yeast cells. “Before we had this system, we were fabricating devices ourselves, which was time-intensive and less reliable. Now I can focus on designing new experiments that were not previously possible.”

June 22, 2007: CellASIC publishes a microfluidic tumor model for drug screening

CellASIC Corporation reports the application of microfluidic cell culture technology to create an in vitro tumor model for improved drug screening. This method, published in the journal Biotechnology Progress, creates an array of micro-bioreactors that mimic the mass transport properties of solid tumors. The array is formatted to a standard 96-well layout, making it compatible with existing screening instrumentation.

"This paper represents a key milestone in CellASIC's mission to develop the next generation of cell screening platforms," said Dr. Philip Lee, Director of Research at CellASIC. "We are now at a point where we can create precise arrays of complex microfluidic cell culture units in a user-friendly format. The next step is to scale the platform for implementation in high throughput automated assays."

This research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

See related article at DrugResearcher.com

Request reprints of Biotechnology Progress manuscript

February 7, 2007: Microfluidic hepatocyte culture method published in Biotechnology & Bioengineering

January 23, 2007: CellASIC presents "Microfluidic Platform for Live Cell Screening" at Laboratory Automation, Palm Springs, CA

December 1, 2006: CellASIC selected as Association for Laboratory Automation Innovation Award Finalist (Palm Springs, CA)

July 5, 2006: CellASIC Selected to R&D Magazine's Micro/Nano 25