This  will allow researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School to initiate the alpha testing program for the system and panels as part of the group’s alpha testing and research collaboration with WaferGen.

According to the announcement, the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System has the capacity to conduct 30,000 assays on a single chip. Additionally, each of the system’s wells is designed to support a real-time PCR reaction of 100 nanoliters. This represents a 1,000 fold decrease in the amount of reagent and sample required by today’s standard real-time PCR technologies. The result is the ability to conduct gene expression research at a fraction of the time and cost associated with current technologies.

Under terms of WaferGen’s collaboration with the University of Pittsburg Medical School, researchers will leverage the high-throughput real-time PCR capabilities of WaferGen’s SmartChip Real-Time PCR System to support their identification of therapeutically-relevant biomarkers in the areas of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and lung cancer.

These experiments will be overseen by Steven Dr  D. Shapiro, Jack D. Myers Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh and Dr Naftali Kaminski, Director of the Dorothy P. and Richard P. Simmons Centre for Interstitial Lung Disease.

“The shipment of the alpha version of the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System to the University of Pittsbugh Medical School is a significant milestone for WaferGen as we work to rapidly bring this innovative product to the market,” said Alnoor Shivji, WaferGen’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We are eager to follow the progress of Dr. Shapiro and his research team as they advance the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System through alpha testing. The feedback that they will be able to provide WaferGen will be invaluable as we continue to pursue our mission of providing researchers around the world with access to the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System.”

WaferGen is presently continuing its work on the development of additional proprietary assays for the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System, including those focused in the area of toxicology. At the same time, the company is also developing an enhanced version of the system that will enable users to conduct 100,000 assays on a single chip. This will provide the opportunity for researchers to use one chip to conduct whole genome gene expression in triplicate.