News Article
IMT Announces New Results for MEMS Cell Purifier
Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) announced today that it has passed several key milestones and demonstrated integrated operations with its Rare Cell Purification System (RCPS), including sorting viable human cells at high speeds with greater than 95% purity.
Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) announced today that it has passed several key milestones and demonstrated integrated operations with its Rare Cell Purification System (RCPS), including sorting viable human cells at high speeds with greater than 95% purity. The RCPS is based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Using fluorescence detection to identify the proper cells, ultra-high-speed MEMS valves switch flow from waste to sort and vice versa in 15 microseconds. Anticipated applications include cancer treatment, nuclear and chemical warfare risk abatement, and disease control.
The RCPS is currently funded by the DARPA Defense Sciences Office as an integral part of the DARPA project to create an artificial human immune system on a chip. The high speed sorter will allow population of the chip-scale system with very specific types of immune cells. The payoff will be a very rapid, chip-scale device to screen new vaccines against biological warfare agents and emerging pathogens.
According to Dr. John Foster, IMT's CEO, "Using MEMS technology, we can significantly improve cell purification processing. We are excited about our achievements this far and are now accelerating our work to produce working systems for field trials by our partners. This is our next step toward commercializing this enabling technology for treating patients with cell therapy."
Added Dr. John Harley, IMT's Program Manager for the RCPS, "The extremely high speed of our system is not the only advantage it brings to cell purification. The fact that the entire fluid path is sterile and completely disposable makes it very attractive for clinical applications. The RCPS we are developing is a robust chip-based system that can dramatically reduce the cost of cell therapy while increasing its availability. We see vast potential for this technology in defense, homeland security, healthcare and general biomedical applications."
The RCPS is currently funded by the DARPA Defense Sciences Office as an integral part of the DARPA project to create an artificial human immune system on a chip. The high speed sorter will allow population of the chip-scale system with very specific types of immune cells. The payoff will be a very rapid, chip-scale device to screen new vaccines against biological warfare agents and emerging pathogens.
According to Dr. John Foster, IMT's CEO, "Using MEMS technology, we can significantly improve cell purification processing. We are excited about our achievements this far and are now accelerating our work to produce working systems for field trials by our partners. This is our next step toward commercializing this enabling technology for treating patients with cell therapy."
Added Dr. John Harley, IMT's Program Manager for the RCPS, "The extremely high speed of our system is not the only advantage it brings to cell purification. The fact that the entire fluid path is sterile and completely disposable makes it very attractive for clinical applications. The RCPS we are developing is a robust chip-based system that can dramatically reduce the cost of cell therapy while increasing its availability. We see vast potential for this technology in defense, homeland security, healthcare and general biomedical applications."
