Berkeley Lights, Icahn Institute Partner

Berkeley Lights, Inc., the pioneer in opto-nanofluidic biosystems that enable interactive biology at the cellular level, has announced it has signed an agreement with the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai that provides early access to Berkeley Lights' instrumentation incorporating its OptoSelect™ light technology* for single cell annotation and genomics. Mount Sinai is using Berkeley Lights' instruments to advance research into applications that will help to transform healthcare.

"The OptoSelect high throughput method provides our team a single cell manipulation platform for exploring otherwise unachievable applications in immunotherapy, single cell genomics, diagnostics, and in-depth, accurate analysis of tissue heterogeneity," stated Robert Sebra, PhD, Director of Technology Development at the Icahn Institute and Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

Single cell biology is a rapidly growing field within life sciences that is taking genomic testing to the next level. Historically, a sample has consisted of many types of cells in groups of tens of thousands of cells.  Berkeley Lights' OptoSelect technology* enables a new level of automation and precision for single cell analysis research. By accepting a broad spectrum of cell densities and isolating them in a non-destructive manner, the OptoSelect technology provides flexibility across a range of applications, including those that require selection or manipulation of low input to rare cell populations.  Very small, precious samples such as fine needle aspirates can now be sorted, annotated, and tested automatically and accurately. Biologists can now select the types of cells and number of cells to interrogate, which allows them to see genomic variations at the cellular level, allowing for the identification of the true drivers of a cell population.

"We are excited to have the Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai as our first BioFoundry partner.  Their vast expertise in the area of single cell genomics is now being exercised on our instruments to generate fundamental knowledge and information that will help guide development of future diagnostic tests," stated Igor Khandros, PhD, Berkeley Lights CEO and co-founder.  "Berkeley Lights is ushering in a new era of interactive biology that will lead to actionable understanding of diseases."

"Berkeley Lights is the only available technology where you can truly 'see' numerous single, distinct cells, and monitor in real time each cell's function during biochemistry or other manipulations," said Eric Schadt, PhD, the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Founding Director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology.

BLI's OptoSelect light technology automates challenging tasks in research applications such as tumor profiling-morphology, surface markers, sequence and protein secretions of single cells from fine needle aspirates (FNAs) and other precious samples.  BLI's nanofluidic Biosystems also enable the selection with high purity of very rare single cells, such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs).  It applies advanced semiconductor technology for nano-fluidics that drives the precision in genomic data and advancements in automation and integration of workflows.