Absolute Quantification of Nucleic Acids with the Droplet Digital™ PCR System
18 Apr 2011
In this SelectScience.tv interview at AACR 2011, QuantaLife introduce the Droplet Digital™ PCR system. The Droplet Generator partitions each sample into twenty thousand one nanolitre droplets. A PCR reaction runs to completion in each droplet, and every droplet of sample is read by the Droplet Reader as either positive or negative for the target DNA/RNA molecules. Statistics are used to estimate the concentration of the target in the original sample, giving digital absolute quantification.
About the company
QuantaLife Inc
QuantaLifeTM has developed the third generation of PCR technology that quantifies DNA molecules by Droplet DigitalTM PCR. Droplet Digital PCR reduces the cost of quantitative PCR, while providing an absolute measure of target molecules with unrivalled quantitative resolution and sensitivity. Applications include copy number variation (CNV), mutation detection, and gene expression analysis. Our mission is to provide tools that accelerate new strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of inherited disorders, cancer, and infectious disease.
QuantaLife's history began at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories where Drs. Bill Colston and Fred Milanovich, QuantaLife's founding CEO and Chairman of the Board, pioneered novel technologies for detecting minute amounts of biological materials. Dr. Colston, Dr. Milanovich and their team at the Lab were charged with developing wide ranging capabilities to defend the United States against terrorism. Through efforts spanning more than a decade, they developed a series of instruments that, for the first time, integrated highly accurate PCR assays into systems that were ultimately deployed and continue to provide cost-effective and reliable protection against bio-terrorism for our nations critical infrastructure, post offices, and transportation systems. One of the inventions, funded by United States Department of Energy, was a fast, highly accurate emulsion PCR concept that could potentially detect the broadest range of biological pathogens at the highest sensitivity. Drs. Colston and Milanovich realized that this manifestation of emulsion PCR now called Droplet Digital PCR also could have important implications in the life sciences and medical diagnostics sector. Driving them was a belief in the elegance of the technology and its power to transform research and diagnostics. Subsequently, with a founding team that included LLNL colleagues Dr. Ben Hindson, Dr. Kevin Ness and Don Masqulier and business professionals from Sage Canyon Advisors, LLC, the Company's business advisory partner, they launched QuantaLife in the summer of 2008.
In 2008, the team opened its first facility in Livermore, California, and later moved to Pleasanton, California. Over the next two years, major technological hurdles were cleared and the technology quickly evolved from concept to working prototype. This elegantly simple system precisely measures DNA variations and or messenger RNA and provides absolute quantification (not relative quantification as with real-time PCR), as a digital readout.
That same year, QuantaLife obtained seed financing from the Paladin Capital Group and has subsequently raised additional funds. QuantaLife is currently on schedule to place its beta systems in key research laboratories for exploration of copy number variation (CNV) in December of 2010, with full product release by mid 2011. Dr. Colston and his team are poised to launch the next generation of PCR, bringing an innovative idea to life.