Advanced Liquid Logic’s (ALL) digital microfluidics technology promises greater scalability and lower costs than traditional, continuous-flow microfluidics. Although the company has commercialized one product itself, it is relying on partnerships to facilitate its technology’s development.

ALL was founded in 2004 and today has 65 employees. ALL currently has four partnerships, with one resulting in a commercial product. ALL signed an agreement in August 2011 to supply NuGEN Technologies with instrumentation, software and digital microfluidic technology for the Mondrian SP (see IBO 9/30/11). Marketed by NuGEN, the Mondrian SP is a benchtop instrument with microfluidic cartridges that automates library construction for next-generation sequencing. Eight fragmented DNA samples, as small as 100 ng, can be run simultaneously on one cartridge. ALL is also partnering with Luminex to combine its technology with Luminex’s xMAP technology to improve the accuracy and speed of multiplexed workflows (see IBO 6/30/10).

The identities of ALL’s two other partnerships remain confidential. One is with a clinical laboratory. Commenting on this partnership, ALL CEO and President Richard West said, “ALL is actively collaborating to bring a menu of molecular diagnostic assays to the digital microfluidic platform.” The fourth partnership is with a pharmaceutical company. “ALL is working to develop several diagnostics tests so our partner’s [orphan] therapeutics can reach patients more quickly and reduce negative outcomes,” he said. In addition to the partnerships, ALL also has an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with CEA-Leti for the latter’s digital microfluidic patents (see IBO 11/15/11).

In contrast to continuous-flow microfluidics, in which pressure is used to place droplets into closed channels, digital microfluidics uses electrowetting, which controls submicroliter droplets by applying an electric field to an electrode on a printed circuit board. “Since the interface to ALL’s consumable lab-on-a-chip is electronic (and not fluidic), all liquids remain on the chip, so instruments are a fraction of the size and cost of traditional systems,” Mr. West explained. Multiple assays can be independently and concurrently manipulated via software. “Digital microfluidics enables precise and flexible manipulation of microdroplets using electrical fields and, therefore, avoids the need for pumps, valves or microchannels required by competing technologies,” he said. Costs are reduced by lower reagent usage and by the inexpensive manufacture of the printed circuit board. LSD-100, the only product ALL markets itself, was introduced in 2011 and screens newborns for five lysosomal storage diseases with enzymatic assays using fluorescent detection.

ALL is exploring other markets but plans to continue to focus on its two core areas. “We are focusing the majority of our resources on menu expansion and product improvement in newborn screening and genomics sample preparation, but we have active programs in other markets such as molecular forensics, point-of-care diagnostics and DNA sequencing,” Mr. West said. In fiscal 2011, ALL received a $996,237 grant from the National Institute of Justice to replace strip-based technology for forensic samples with a system to purify and analyze proteins and DNA simultaneously.