“Combining Ion with DEPArray digitalized samples to resolve heterogeneity”, Raimo Tanzi Ion World Tour Manchester

Silicon Biosystems is a new company based in Italy that is developing a novel platform for solving the problem of heterogeneity of cells from tissues of many types. (For example, it is well-established that cancer is comprised of at least six cell types.) Their system uses microfabricated electrodes on a silicon chip married to a fluidic system, where a set of 9 electrodes form a di-electrophoretic ‘cage’ that enables single-cell trapping (as well as manipulation). These chips are called a DEPArray.

Combined with a multi-fluor detection system in addition to a brightfield optical one, both epitope markers and cell morphology can be used to select out a few to tens of thousands of cells from a hetergeneous mixture of millions of cells. Their development group was able to generate Ion AmpliSeq™ Panel data from a pool of 300 disaggregated cells from an FFPE sample, and then use successfully lower numbers of cells (down to as few as 10) all within the timespan of 100 days.

Here’s an interview with Dr. Raimo Tanzi, where he discusses their experience with the Ion Torrent PGM™ System.