Tang Wins Biopico Subcontract

May 8, 2019 - Biomedical engineering professor William Tang recently won a subcontract from UC Irvine spinoff company Biopico Systems Inc., which manufactures cellular assay chip platforms for characterizing and sorting stem cells. The company, which launched in 2011, is based on technology conceived in the early 2000s when company founder John Collins was a UCI postdoctoral researcher. Its current work is funded by a one-year National Institutes of Health SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant.

The team working on the new cellular electrophysiological purification arrays includes, from left: Biopico’s chief engineer Henry Wong; John Collins, company president and CEO; Samueli School professor William Tang and doctoral student Joanne Ly.

Tang and his doctoral student Joanne Ly will help develop a new product called a cellular electrophysiological purification array for use in preclinical therapies. These microfluidic platforms will enable the delivery of highly specific differentiated cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) derived rapidly and non-invasively from induced pluripotent stem cells. The microfluidic chip technology uses a sorting system based on detecting electrophysiological signatures and can drastically reduce the time and cost associated with stem cell therapy for heart disease.

“This work leverages expertise in micro technologies, microfluidics, cellular mechanics and biomedical applications from both Biopico and my group,” says Tang. “It is a synergistic collaboration.”

- Anna Lynn Spitzer

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