Fluxion Delivers First Commercial Shipments of IsoFlux™ System for Circulating Tumor Cell Analysis

Fluxion Biosciences, Inc. announced today that the first round of IsoFlux instruments has been delivered to customers around the world. Initially announced in November, the IsoFlux System is an automated instrument and microfluidic cartridge for high sensitivity enrichment of rare cells such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), stem cells, and immune cells. The first 15 instrument placements included global pharma companies, emerging biotechs, and leading cancer research institutes.

"We're very pleased that after two years of research and development, the IsoFlux System is now in the hands of very capable customers," said Jeff Jensen, CEO of Fluxion. "We fully expect that the next wave of breakthroughs in cancer diagnostics will come from this group and future customers."

CTCs are cells that disseminate from primary tumors and contribute to the spread of the disease to other parts of the body. They circulate in very low concentration in the peripheral blood and are not readily retrievable with conventional technologies. The IsoFlux System recovers these rare tumor cells from a standard blood draw and prepares them for molecular analysis. The platform offers improved sensitivity of CTC recovery in a low-volume format optimized for analytical platforms such as real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), next generation sequencing (NGS), and immunofluorescence. Initial customers have adopted the system to characterize CTCs for biomarkers including gene expression, mutations, and chromosomal aberrations.

“Our reconnaissance identified the IsoFlux instrument as a perfectly suitable technology platform for our needs in translational cancer researchto analyze circulating tumor cells from patients with various cancer indications” said Dr.Norbert Kienzle at the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research in Sydney, Australia. “In addition to highly sensitive recovery of CTCs and ease of system use, we need flexibility for downstream molecular and cellular analyses - the IsoFlux ticks all these boxes. Our initial hands-on experience and the constructive working relationship with Fluxion gives us confidence to go forward with our research questions on the biology and clinical utility of CTCs, ultimately aiming to improve patient outcomes in one of Sydney’s largest and fastest growing cancer populations.”