Meeting the Increasing Demand for Next-generation Spatially Resolved, Single-cell Transcriptomics
A biotech customer with a breadboard instrument tasked Gener8 with developing a fully integrated, image-based benchtop instrument for single-cell gene expression profiling. The technology enables medical researchers to efficiently interrogate biology on a systems scale.
Challenges
- Converting a complex prototype instrument into a commercial benchtop system
- 35 reagent connectors and valves in the prototype
- Ensuring the design is compact using off-the-shelf components
- Developing a consumable cartridge to contain the reagents for measurements
- Ensuring the system functions well and maintains accuracy in a commercial setting
Solutions
- Utilizing off-the-shelf optics components to expedite the development process and minimize effort.
- Incorporating custom mechanics tailored specifically to the instrument’s application, resulting in cost reduction and improved stability.
- Implementing only the essential parts of the required microscope functions to reduce both cost and size.
- Minimizing the overall size of the instrument, eliminating the need for an optical table by ensuring stable connections of sensitive optical components and strategically placing vibration isolators.
- Developing a biocompatible consumable cartridge where the chambers in the carousel were filled with the necessary reagents and heat sealed during assembly.
- Employing thin film coverings and laser welding to seal the channels connecting each chamber, ensuring proper containment of reagents.
- Transferring the reagents from the early prototype instrument to the biocompatible consumable, which contributed to instrument size reduction and improved maintenance and serviceability.
