Fluidigm Chip Can Synthesize FDG in Nanoquantities

A lab-on-a-chip technology developed by Fluidigm Corp. of South San Francisco can synthesize the radiolabeled glucose analog, fluorodeoxy-glucose (FDG), in nanogram quantitites, a team of scientists from Fluidigm, Caltech, UCLA, Stanford University, and Siemens Medical Solutions have demonstrated, according to a paper recently published in the journal Science.

FDG is critically important as a molecular imaging probe in positron emission tomography, but only has a half-life of 110 minutes, which puts limits on its use in administering it to a patent for use in diagnosis. Current methods require about 50 minutes for synthesis.

FDG, which in 1999 was approved by the FDA for the diagnosis of all cancers, cardiovascular disease, and epilepsy, is manufactured using cyclotrons. There are networks of these synthesizing operations located near areas of high PET instrumentation. Recently, the Mayo Institute recently opted to purchase cyclotrons to manufacture its own FDG and have a consistent supply uninterruptible by Minnesota's winters.

So, accelerating the synthesis time of FDG could be positive for increasing the use of PET diagnostics. Fluidigm's technology apparently can reduce synthesis time to about 15 minutes, according to the company. Note that this paper is only a proof-of-principle and hurdles of all kinds must be overcome before a promising concept is successfully commercialized at mass scale.

Fluidigm's technology is called an integrated fluidic circuit -- a dime-sized lab-on-a-chip made of silicone rubber containing a web of microfluidics -- piping, valves and chambers -- that resembles a biologist's version of a semiconductor.

Positron emission tomography is regarded as the gold standard for pathological analysis, a technique that produces images capturing the metabolism of radiopharmaceuticals absorbed by tissue in the body. Some 700,000 PET scans were performed at some 1,500 sites in the US in 2003, with 93 percent of PET studies conducted for oncology purposes, and 7 percent for cardiology and neurology applications, according to research published by IMV Medical Information Division, a Des Plaines, Ill., market research firm.

The leading edge of the technology is a $2-million combination of PET and computed tomography technology, with GE Healthcare the dominant player for these machines in a market estimated at nearly $500 million in 2004, followed by Siemens and Philips Electronics, respectively.

Stephen Quake of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., co-founded Fluidigm to commercialize the microfluidic technology that he and his colleagues have invented. Among Fluidigm's investors are Lehman Brothers, General Electric, Eli Lilly and the government of Singapore. Its partners include GlaxoSmithKline. The company earlier this year said that it will move its chip manufacturing operations from California to Singapore.