News | March 9, 2000

Agilent Showcases First Lab-on-a-Chip Product at Pittcon

Agilent Showcases First Lab-on-a-Chip Product at Pittcon

At Pittcon 2000, N/A will showcase its HP 2100 bioanalyzer for nucleic acid analysis. The HP 2100 is the first widely available complete analytical system using utilizing lab-on-a-chip technology. At last year’s Pittcon, HP spokesman Doug Forsyth mentioned that HP (soon to become Agilent) was very high on the lab-on-a-chip idea, and this product affirms Agilent’s commitment to this technology platform.

Based on Caliper Technologies’ LabChip idea, the 2100 marks a major step toward the development of a completely automated microscale laboratory, which has long been the goal of Caliper and other lab-on-a-chip companies. In the 2100, all sample preparation, fluid handling, and biochemical analysis steps are carried out within the confines of a microchip comprised of microchannels interconnected with fluid reservoirs and channels, fabricated in glass, plastic, or other substrates.

 

Used together with various LabChip kits, the HP 2100 bioanalyzer improves the quality of nucleic acid analysis by integrating sample handling, separation, detection, and digital data processing within a single, compact system architecture. The system is designed for molecular biologists and biochemists working with polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) products, restriction enzyme digests, or ribonucleic acid (RNA) preparations.

Implications for Life-Science Research
Researchers in the areas of disease and drug discovery still experience manual processing bottlenecks during the analysis of nucleic acids. LabChip technology offers many benefits over existing manual gel electrophoresis products:

 

  • Improved Accuracy—The integrated, miniaturized chip design drastically cuts system-retention and material-transfer losses, improving accuracy and reducing sample consumption.
  • Rapid Analysis—Miniaturized fluid pathways, based on microchannels microns in size, dramatically shorten run times. Each nucleic acid sample is analyzed in approximately 90 seconds.
  • Enhanced Reproducibility—State-of-the-art fabrication processes yield chips that perform more reproducibly than conventional gel products. Automated fluid handling, using standardized experimental protocols, further enhances performance.

Initial Applications
The HP 2100 bioanalyzer is offered with three introductory assays. Each assay is packaged as a complete, ready-to-use kit:

 

  • DNA 7500 LabChip kit for accurate sizing and quantitation of DNA fragments ranging in size from 100bp to 7,500bp;
  • DNA 12000 LabChip kit for accurate sizing of DNA fragments from 100bp to 12,000bp; and
  • RNA 6000 LabChip kit for the analysis and quantitation of total RNA and mRNA samples.

Pricing and Availability
The HP 2100 bioanalyzer is initially available in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. It can be ordered directly through HP’s chemical analysis products sales offices in each of the selected countries. The price of the complete system is $18,800, and delivery is estimated at six weeks from receipt of order. The system is expected to be available in additional European countries and Japan within the next year.

Visit Agilent Technologies at Pittcon, booth 6447.

For more information: Jay Gibson, Hewlett-Packard, 3427, 71 Southgate Boulevard, New Castle, DE 19720. Tel: 800-227-9770.

Angelo DePalma