South San Francisco CEO: ‘We might serve the world’ | Native Information
“In the heart of the world’s biotech capital, companies like Fluidigm have helped fight COVID and save lives,” said David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
Local and state officials recently visited the South San Francisco-based biotechnology company that has played a huge role in fighting the COVID pandemic by providing thousands of tests on its microfluidic technology.
“We could serve the state of California, we could serve the world,” said Chris Linthwaite, President and CEO of Fluidigm. “So it’s a pretty massive acceleration and expansion of technology.”
Microfluidic technology was founded 20 years ago and became the perfect application for the need to conduct COVID testing on a larger scale. A quarter of a million tests could be done a day based on their production capacity. It uses saliva samples, but also takes nose and blood samples, Fluidigm representatives said.
The company shared one of its microfluidic cartridges with Canepa and California Treasurer Fiona Ma on a tour on July 9, Canepa said.
“The company also makes advanced equipment that enables clinical researchers to accelerate responses in the fight against cancer.”
Also known as the Integrated Fluidic Circuit or IFC for short, it runs a large number of samples and uses certain DNA and RNA sequences to determine whether a virus or a bacterium is present, said Andrew Quong, chief science officer at Fluidigm.
In addition to being able to detect the COVID-19 virus, it can also detect others like the influenza virus or when the person carries a specific mutation such as a BRCA1 mutation that has been linked to breast cancer or ovarian cancer.
As these smaller instruments develop, they become more affordable and easier to use when compared to larger, more expensive equipment, allowing hospitals and the hospital-affiliated laboratories that are not as well positioned to adapt and apply the latest technology, Quong said.
“We’re able to go into smaller labs and run them like bigger labs so we can really reach the underserved community that may need testing in the future,” he said.
Canepa asked how local and state decision-makers could support this work, to which Linthwaite replied that it hopes to bridge the gap between government agencies in order to better mobilize their resources. His main point of contact is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense.
Last summer, the company received $ 40 million in investment, including funds from the NIH, to help scale its manufacturing and R&D process.
The life sciences tools company has 12 offices in 10 countries where it makes instruments, reagents, chemical test kits, and more for use in biology, including various types of research, primarily in immunology and oncology.
The tour was arranged by Biocom California, an organization that connects and advocates companies in the life science industry.
According to Biocom, life science companies in the peninsula, San Mateo and Santa Clara, directly employed 72,294 people in 2019 and generated 68.5 billion US dollars in economic activity.
