Marketing Alliance for LabChip Systems

An agreement to co-distribute clinical diagnostic systems based on their proprietary technologies has been announced by Caliper Technologies Corp. (Mountain View, CA, USA) and Bacterial BarCodes, Inc. (Houston, TX, USA).

The companies will combine Caliper's LabChip microfluidic systems for DNA analysis with the repPCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology of Bacterial BarCodes to improve the detection and diagnosis of invasive bacterial infections. A new diagnostic kit will contain the LabChip reagents and the repPCR reagents, offering a practical method to quickly produce bacterial fingerprints in an automated format. Caliper will supply chips to Bacterial BarCodes, who will sell the new kit and provide customers with access to BarCodes' software and database of bacterial fingerprints.
Two instrumentation formats will be available: a personal laboratory system for small-batch analysis and an automated sample access system for high-volume analysis.
The rep-PCR method can distinguish closely related strains of bacteria in just a few hours, while the LabChip devices and systems enable experiments to be conducted on a chip small enough to fit in the palm of a child's hand.

"This collaboration represents an important step in our commercialization strategy for re-PCR technology,” said N.J. Pierce, president and CEO of Bacterial BarCodes. The company is a spinoff of the venture development subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine.






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Caliper
Bacterial BarCodes