RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK –Cell Microsystems, has disclosed the first commercial sale of its automated AIR System for the imaging, sorting and isolation of single cells and small colonies to Albert Einstein College of Medicine investigator Jan Vijg, PhD.

Viig acquired the system as a component of Einstein’s already extensive core facilities and their recent foray into single cell genomic technology.

The company’s CEO, Gary Pace, PhD, JD, said in a statement,“Having a world-class team like Dr. Vijg’s at Einstein as the first purchaser of the AIR System is excellent validation of the product’s capabilities, value and commercial potential.”

The AIR System is based on the core CellRaft™ Technology which allows single cells to be cultured in an array of thousands of microwells contained in the proprietary CytoSort Array consumable. After imaging each cell using the system’s 3-channel fluorescence and brightfield capabilities, users can select cells for subsequent isolation and downstream molecular analysis or culture of clonal colonies.

The system is generally utilized by researchers focused on single cell genomic analysis or genome editing methods such as CRISPR.

Moonsook Lee, MS, Laboratory Manager in the Vijg lab, described the AIR System in a statement as, “Very useful to pick single cells and nuclei. It works very well even with very small collection volumes of 1 and 2.5 microliters.”

The system is also being used in neighboring laboratories for its capabilities to isolate clonal colonies in genome editing workflows. Yizhou Zhu, a graduate student in the laboratory of Yousin Suh, PhD, said the AIR System’s said, “The system really allows us to do imaging-based characterization of genome edited cells that we otherwise couldn’t do. We have a lot of experiments planned for it.”

The company was recently listed as one of the top awardees of NIH funding in the state of North Carolina. It exhibit its products at upcoming life science conferences including the American Society for Human Genetics and the joint American Society for Cell Biology/European Molecular Biology Organization, both in San Diego later in 2018.

Previously on WRAL Techwire:

RTP’s Cell Microsystems lands $1.5M NIH grant for new prototype (+ video)