Stratec Consumables, a subsidiary of Stratec Biomedical, and NetScientific portfolio firm Vortex BioSciences have entered into a supply agreement for manufacturing of a microfluidic chip for the VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System.

SONY DSC

Image: Microfluidic polymer chip by Stratec Consumables. Photo: courtesy of Business Wire.

This chip is a key component of the VTX-1 instrument, an automated liquid biopsy platform which provides a simple, label free isolation of circulating tumor cells directly from a tube of blood.

This microfluidic research platform was developed in Dino Di Carlo’s Lab at UCLA which has been successfully transferred to the commercial VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System.

The label-free microfluidic device utilizes inertial lift and laminar microvortices, allowing larger and more deformable cancer cells to be collected while smaller cells such as red and white blood cells pass through.

With this technology, Vortex BioSciences is offering the best available liquid biopsy platform for CTC isolation and collection from patient samples.

Adapting the design to a commercial scale microfluidic device can be guaranteed at STRATEC at their ISO-13485 certified facility in Salzburg, Austria. By offering technical capabilities from initial concept through mass manufacturing, STRATEC can ensure silicon precision in plastics and high reproducibility.

Vortex Biosciences CEO Bob Englert said: “We are delighted to be partnering with STRATEC to fabricate our microfluidic chip. This chip is the essential element of our label-free technology to enable an efficient and fully-automated patient sample processing.

“The transfer from a variable research-level polymer prototype to a robust and reproducible plastic commercial chip is a key part of a successful transfer of technology to the market. This ultimately enables CTCs to be more widely used in cancer research and become part of the standard of care.”

Stratec Consumables project manager Maximilian Pitzek said: “Bringing the Vortex chip into mass-manufacturing was a very exciting project for us. Vortex is inspiring both in its benefit to the constantly maturing liquid biopsy market, as well as in their balance of being science-driven but focused on commercialization.

“ It is exactly with companies like Vortex where we see our big strength in actively participating in the transformation process of a new technology from a lab idea, or early prototypes to an actual medical product, eventually fit for the IVD market.”

Vortex Biosciences is a cancer research and diagnostics company that integrates cancer biology, microfluidic engineering and informatics to develop tools for isolating and characterizing circulating tumor cells.

Stratec Biomedical designs and manufactures fully automated analyzer systems for its partners in the fields of clinical diagnostics and biotechnology.

Furthermore, the company offers sample preparation solutions, integrated laboratory software, and complex consumables for diagnostic and medical applications.

Source: Company Press Release