Fluidigm

"FLDM" redirects here. For the school in Nuevo León, Mexico, see Nuevo León § Education.
Fluidigm Corporation
Formerly called
 Mycometrix
Public (2011– )
Traded as NASDAQ: FLDM
Founded 1999 (1999)
Founders
  • Gajus Worthington
  • Steve Quake
Headquarters South San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
 Gajus Worthington (President, CEO)
Number of employees
 500 (2014)
Website Official website
Fluidigm in Canada

Fluidigm Corporation is a public, American company engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of biological research equipment based on integrated fluidic circuit technology.[1] In 2009, Fluidigm was described as "the world's leading manufacturer of microfluidic devices."[2] Among the applications to which Fluidigm products are put to use are protein crystallization, genotyping, DNA analysis and PCR.[3]

Business model

Fluidigm's products leverage the capabilities of multilayer soft lithography to create microfluidic devices,[4] specifically technology developed by one of the co-founders and branded "Integrated Fluidic Circuitry".[5]

Fluidigm is a public company traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol FLDM.[6]

Fluidigm has a number of academic partners whose engagement is aimed to provide a wow factor to exemplar product uses; partners include Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Broad Institute, the Genome Institute of Singapore and Kyoto University.[1]

Among companies which include "integrated microfluidic technology" into their products, the only competitor which a market focus on biotechnology as of 2011 appeared to be RainDance Technologies.[3]

Going into 2015, the company is making an effort to infuse industrial design, aesthetic and customer centricity principles to help distinguish their products from those of competitors and generate a distinctive brand experience for users.[1]

History

Fluidigm was founded in 1999 as "Mycometrix" by Steve Quake and Gajus Worthington.[6][5] The company was formed to commercialize technology developed by Quake at the California Institute of Technology referred to as microfluidic large-scale integration and "branded" under the name Integrated Fluidic Circuits.[5] As of 2015, Worthington remains with the company as president and chief executive officer (CEO),[1] while Quake was a member of the company's scientific advisory board as of 2011.[5]

The company completed a successful initial public offering (IPO) in February 2011, raising about US$75,000,000.[6][7] This followed a failed, ill-timed IPO in 2008.[6] As of the 2011 IPO, Fluidigm had not yet become profitable, but had accumulated nearly US$200,000,000 in debt.[6]

Operations

At the end of 2014, Fluidigm had a headcount of 500 personnel.[1]

In addition to its headquarters and laboratory facility in South San Francisco, California, which it expanded in 2014,[8] the company in 2005 established the first biochip manufacturing facility in Singapore.[2][5] The Singapore facility was in 2009 led by Grace Yow, who also held the position of Fluidigm vice president of worldwide manufacturing.[2]

Products

Fluidigm's products typically consist of single-use biochips, instrumentation for handling biochips and software for instrument operation and data collection and analysis.[2] No Fluidigm products had been approved for clinical use in the United States as of 2009.[2]

Fluidigm's first commercial product was aimed at the protein crystallization market and was launched in 2003 under the brand "Topaz".[5] The company's second marketed product targeted high-throughput DNA amplification and was launched in 2006 under the brand "BioMark".[5] By 2013, BioMark had been adapted to real-time PCR and was capable of running >9000 reactions in parallel.[9] A high-throughput genotyping system, FLUIDIGM EPI, was introduced in 2008.[5]

The C1 Single-Cell Auto Prep, or C1 system, was released in the early 2000s aimed at delivering 96 single-cell capture and processing events in parallel.[1] One aim of development forward from the C1 system is increasing parallel throughput.[1] This initial line of instruments purportedly cost about US$200,000 apiece to purchase in 2011.[6] One reported use for the instruments is "to identify signatures of induced pluripotent stem cells".[6]

Another product line was launched in late 2014 with an introductory instrument, an "imaging mass cytometer", on which subsequent products will be built.[1]

Notes

References

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