WaferGen Biosystems, Inc. has announced positive data on the company’s SmartChip Real-Time PCR System. These validation results were presented today by WaferGen scientists and collaborative researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as part of a poster presentation at Cambridge Healthcare Institute’s 16th International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference in San Francisco. Key findings presented at the conference included: • SmartChip system’s ability to generate real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results in clinical samples for approximately 1,000 oncology genes in triplicate on a single chip, using small amounts of RNA (300-500ngs) in less than three hours. We believe this demonstrates the SmartChip system’s ability to produce the industry’s fastest time to results. • Significant reduction in required reaction volume from 25-50uL to 100nl, saving significantly on reagent cost. • Establishment of the SmartChip system’s equivalence in performance to current real-time PCR standards. • Successful demonstration of key SmartChip system workflow elements, including primer-ready SmartChips and the drying and reconstitution of primers for rapid high-throughput 100 nL real-time PCR. It is important to note that all of these results were achieved using clinical biological samples from emphysema, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and healthy patients. “The demonstration of the SmartChip system’s ability to generate PCR results on a very large number of genes using only a small quantity of RNA in a significantly reduced timeframe has generated considerable excitement among our team. We expect that this excitement will be shared by current collaborators and potential customers,” stated Alnoor Shivji, WaferGen's chairman and chief executive officer. “We are pleased to have had the opportunity to present these important validation results for the SmartChip system at a highly-regarded scientific conference. We continue to be encouraged by the performance of the SmartChip system in this rigorous scientific testing program.” WaferGen’s SmartChip alpha testing program, which is being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, involves the study of RNA isolated from lung tissue samples from healthy patients, as well as patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and IPF. Researchers are screening these RNA samples with the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System in order to assess the platform’s performance in conducting novel gene expression research. The next phase of the alpha testing program will focus on using the SmartChip system to identify biomarkers of interest.