Dolomite brings droplet device to market
University spin-out company Drop-Tech has developed Mitos Dropix, a droplet-on-demand sampler set to make it easy to produce extremely miniaturised droplet compartments with excellent control over their contents.
The company turned to microfluidics specialist Dolomite to help productise its Robo-Drop technology into the device, which it says will prove invaluable in basic research, drug discovery and diagnostics applications.
Liisa van Vliet, a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and Managing Director of Drop-Tech, explained that the company was formed from a collaboration between Cambridge and Imperial College London. The company then won Dolomite’s Productizing Science Competition, which sparked discussions between the two development teams.
“In a university environment, finding the time to convert an invention into a product is often difficult, so we welcomed Dolomite’s offer to accelerate product development, fast-tracking the transition from idea to market,” van Vliet said. “Dolomite knows and understands microfluidic droplet technologies and has the engineering expertise to productise the instrument.”
The Mitos Dropix sampler allows the creation of nanolitre droplet sequences from up to 24 different samples, with precise control over droplet content and size, as well as the spacing between droplets. It can be used as an add-on for conventional microfluidic chips, delivering droplets for merging, further miniaturisation, dilution or any other droplet manipulation, and is also suitable for use in conjunction with other analytical and liquid handling systems.
The first batch of instruments is soon to reach beta testers, while further collaboration is planned to develop droplet analysis capabilities on upcoming versions of the instrument.
“With Dolomite’s help, we will be able to provide scientists with an easy-to-use instrument that can dispense controlled, user-defined sequences of nanolitre droplets for a range of diverse applications,” said van Vliet.
Drop-Tech and Dolomite are looking forward to additional collaborations in the future.
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