Fluidigm and the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), establish the first center of excellence in Singapore and Southeast Asia for advancement in highly multiplexed tissue imaging in translational and clinical research.
Announced on 11 March 2020, Fluidigm Corporation, an innovative biotechnology tools provider together with SIgN, part of the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), have established a new Center of Excellence (CoE) for Imaging Mass CytometryTM (IMCTM).
“We are excited about this partnership and committed to harnessing the full power of mass cytometry technology to advance biomarker discovery and accelerate the development of innovative new medicines and diagnostics,” said Professor Laurent Renia, Executive Director of SIgN.
“The dual capabilities of this Center of Excellence will enable a more comprehensive view of disease pathology, new research advances, and better support of clinical and industry partnerships with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and global scientific consortiums.”
As the first CoE for IMC in Singapore and Southeast Asia, the center will focus on single-cell deep spatial immune-profiling to demonstrate the utility of highly multiplexed imaging across a range of disease areas such as cancer immunology. IMC, based on CyTOF® technology, is revolutionizing translational and clinical research by providing unprecedented visualization of complex cellular phenotypes and their relationships in the context of cancer, immuno-oncology, and immune-mediated diseases.
Using the CoE’s dual capabilities of performing both mass cytometry and IMC, researchers will be able to deeply profile a wide range of samples from blood to tissues, all on the same system using highly multiplexed cytometry and tissue imaging.
The center will be located at SIgN’s premises at Biopolis, Singapore’s biomedical research hub, the new CoE will serve as a regional platform for scientific innovation, training, and services in mass cytometry and IMC and accelerate innovation in new product development and pre-commercial product testing.
“A key application of Imaging Mass Cytometry in clinical translational research will be to reveal the immune landscape of tumors to influence therapeutic strategies and interventions in immunotherapy,” said Associate Professor David Tan Shao Peng, a leading medical oncologist in women’s cancer at the National University Health System and Clinical Adjunct at SIgN.
“As a market leader in highly multiplexed imaging, we see this new CoE as an important milestone in our strategy to accelerate global adoption by providing greater access to new customers in Singapore and Southeast Asia,” said Chris Linthwaite, President and CEO of Fluidigm. “We look forward to working together with the experienced team at A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network and expanding our CoE program in the future with those who share our vision for advancing health care research.” [APBN]