Agilent Technologies has sold more than one million LabChip chips - small analytical devices used with the Agilent 2100 bioanalyser to perform automated analysis of DNA, RNA, proteins and cells
These chips are based on lab-on-a-chip technology, which relies on the principles of microfluidics to manipulate tiny amounts of liquid within a miniaturised system.
"Scientists recognise the benefits of lab-on-a-chip technology for improving speed, data quality and ease of use," said Tony Owen, liquid phase analysis platform marketing manager for Agilent's pharmaceutical analysis business.
"They are making extensive use of our technology in their peer-reviewed research, as seen in the more than 1000 citations for the bioanalyser in scientific literature".
In collaboration with Caliper Life Sciences, Agilent introduced the industry's first commercial lab-on-a-chip system, the Agilent 2100 bioanalyser, in 1999.
With more than 2500 sold, the bioanalyser has become a valuable tool for genomics, proteomics, biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing, food safety and homeland security.
In genomics, the bioanalyser has become an industry-standard platform for RNA quality assessment in gene expression, polymerase chain reaction and RNA interference experiments, says Agilent.
Lab-on-a-chip technology offers several advantages over gel electrophoresis, one of the oldest and most widely used techniques in the life sciences.
In gel electrophoresis, nucleic acids or proteins are manually loaded into a gel matrix that separates molecules by size, charge and/or shape when an electric field is applied.
The bioanalyser integrates and automates this process, resulting in smaller sample use, faster analyses and more accurate and reproducible results.
For some protein analyses, the bioanalyser can reduce total turnaround time 20-fold compared with gel electrophoresis.
In addition, the bioanalyser can be modified for regulatory-compliant use in pharmaceutical environments.
To standardise RNA quality measurement using the bioanalyser, Agilent introduced a beta version of its RNA integrity number (RIN) software earlier this year.
RIN is the first tool for objectively grading and communicating the quality of RNA used in experiments.
It is designed to improve the reproducibility and comparison of RNA-based research data and to facilitate the submission of data for review by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Later this year, the company says it expects to release the first fully automated, high-throughput lab-on-a-chip system, which will enable unattended analysis of thousands of DNA or protein samples per day.
