Fluidigm and the Broad Institute launch research centre

The Broad Institute (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) and Fluidigm Corporation (South San Francisco, California, USA) have announced the launch of a research centre dedicated to accelerating the development of research methods and discoveries in mammalian single-cell genomics.

The Single-Cell Genomics Centre will be based at the Broad Institute and will feature a complete suite of Fluidigm single-cell tools, protocols and technologies. The centre evolved out of ongoing collaborations between the Broad Institute and Fluidigm. The centre plans to develop novel single-cell, microfluidic approaches for gene expression profiling, RNA/DNA sequencing and epigenetic analysis. The aim of these efforts is to make single-cell research accessible to the greater scientific community by developing new workflows, reagents, bioinformatics tools and data sets. These advances will allow a deeper exploration of the underlying causes of many diseases, including the progression of individual cancers.

Gajus Worthington, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fluidigm, said, "The cell is the fundamental unit of life, and through greater understanding of it, researchers can make breakthroughs in large and important fields, such as cancer diagnosis and therapy, stem cell biology, vaccine development, and even the mounting battle against drug-resistant bacteria. We expect this centre to inspire, enable and accelerate efforts in the emerging field of single-cell research."

Ken Livak, PhD, Fluidigm Senior Scientific Fellow, who will act as the Alliance Manager at the Broad Institute, overseeing research projects between the centre and project partner, commented, "Our intent is to establish the centre as a focal point to enhance collaboration and accelerate the science, applications, methods and discoveries in single-cell genomics research. Our efforts with the Broad Institute in forming a centre that specifically focuses on single-cell research represent a big step forward for this emerging area of biological research."

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