New Cell and Tissue Acquisition Device Improves Efficiency at More Affordable Price

An innovative and affordable new cell and tissue acquisition instrument improves efficiency and ease-of-use compared to existing laser-assisted microdissection systems.

Kuiqpick, introduced by NeuroInDx, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA, USA), is the innovative new laser-assisted microdissection and acquisition system for research laboratories. It includes the additional the capacity to collect cells from tissues and cultures without affecting their viability, enabling the collected cells to then be cultured for further analysis and downstream applications. Also notable, Kuiqpick costs less than USD 30,000 per device, about one-fourth the cost of existing systems. “Kuiqpick [opens] the door for more labs to conduct the critical collection of live cells and tissue areas for examination and culturing,” said Stan Karsten, PhD, NeuroInDx chief scientific officer and cofounder; “For too long, the high cost of tissue microdissection and cell sorting technologies have limited cell-specific research. With the introduction of Kuiqpick, more labs and researchers can afford the technology.”

Rebecca Stockton, PhD, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) assistant professor of pediatrics, uses Kuiqpick to study cerebral cavernous malformations and said, “[Kuiqpick is] perfect for collecting small abnormal blood vessels from the brain tissue and specific cells from cultures based on their form and structure, or their morphology, which is critical for my research.”

Originally conceived at UCLA and further developed by NeuroInDx, Kuiqpick can be attached to an inverted microscope to dissect brain tissue slices at the cellular resolution and collect individual cells from various cell cultures. A single press of a button initiates the collection of the brain tissue area or cells into a disposable capillary unit. Collected tissue samples are then transferred to a test tube for further use. “Kuiqpick is a novel and highly accurate system that has already proven to be extremely efficient in the isolation of specific cell populations from live and freshly frozen brain tissues,” said Dr. Lili C. Kudo, president and CEO of NeuroInDx; “It can be successfully used in a variety of molecular studies, including stem cell research, genomics and proteomics.”

NeuroInDx also offers to provide researchers with custom cell and tissue collection services and subsequent gene expression-microarray experiments, thus saving time and funding for their projects.

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