The Fluidigm Biomark system has been selected by Dr Toshio Suda of Keio University's 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) programme at the Graduate School of Medicine.
The Biomark system for genetic analysis will assist in researching mouse hematopoietic single stem cells.
Keio University's COE is using the microfluidic properties of Fluidigm's integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) to analyse selected genes in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs).
The interaction of HSCs with their particular microenvironment, known as the stem cell niche, is critical for adult haematopoiesis in bone marrow.
The COE plans to use Fluidigm's dynamic-array and digital-array IFCs in this effort.
Keio University's COE Graduate School of Medicine programme brings together researchers and clinicians from stem cell biology, regenerative medicine, immunology, autoimmune disease and infectious disease areas to form a scientific community that conducts basic medical research, utilising the elucidation of the pathology of intractable diseases and disease model systems to develop methods of treatment.
Gajus Worthington, president and chief executive officer of Fluidigm, said: 'We hope Fluidigm's technology and its ability to provide extreme sensitivity at the single-cell level can help Suda unlock new vistas of understanding as he explores hematopoietic stem cells and their niches.' Suda added: 'Our research in hematopoietic stem cells and how they interact with their niches to maintain a balance between self-renewal and differentiation is key to ultimately establishing techniques for niche-based therapy.
'The Fluidigm Biomark technology enables us to easily study populations of HSCs on the single-cell level, allowing us to accurately characterise the cellular and molecular components of "Niche complex".' The ability of Fluidigm's microfluidic devices - or IFCs - to isolate and control individual molecules provides great insight into the development of biological events that influence stem cell differentiation.
Analysing the stochastic differences between individual cells typically requires studying large numbers of individual cells and genes.
Fluidigm's IFC volume requirements are so low that researchers have been able to study as many as 1,000 genes from an individual cell.
The technology facilitates thousands of single-cell experiments, allowing the biological differences to manifest themselves.
A recent 'Nature Reports Stem Cells' article noted: 'Stem cells are defined by their remarkable ability to self-renew and differentiate into specialised cells.
'But even after careful sorting, a single population of stem cells is dynamic: some divide rapidly and others more slowly; some differentiate, others self-renew; some can give rise to more lineages than others.
'Because of this variation, population studies of stem cells are unable to accurately address essential questions, such as defining discrete steps from a single stem cell to a complex population of cells.' Worthington said: 'Each stem cell needs to be treated as an individual because it's not necessarily in the same state at every point in time.'
