Accessible, highly scalable single-cell technology expands Illumina's multiomics capabilities

Illumina, Inc., a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, announce that it has acquired Fluent BioSciences, developer of an emerging and highly differentiated single-cell technology.  

"The addition of Fluent BioSciences to Illumina will provide significant and new capabilities to our customers in a key growth area and advances our multiomics growth strategy," said Steven Barnard, chief technology officer of Illumina. "Single-cell research opens doors to new areas of discovery, and Fluent's innovative, accessible, and flexible single-cell method will accelerate our ability to deliver full multiomics solutions for our customers."

Fluent's single-cell analysis technology eliminates the need for complex, expensive instrumentation and microfluidic consumables. This novel approach removes many of the barriers and limitations of current methods, making single-cell analysis accessible for a broader set of customers, and catalyzing new experiments enabled by the ability to perform that assay at the point of sample collection. Fluent's latest release, PIPseq™ V, delivers exceptional performance, with the ability to detect cell types often missed with current methods, and the highest scalability, capable of processing a range from 100 cells up to 1 million.

Fluent's unique technology combined with Illumina's leading sequencing and informatics solutions including Partek Flow, which enables single-cell multiomic analysis, will provide customers with a complete solution and single point of support so that researchers can advance discovery faster and more economically.

The Fluent team will join Illumina, and PIPseq V will be integrated into Illumina's product portfolio. The company plans to build on Fluent's technology to develop full end-to-end solutions for single-cell analysis.

Illumina will remain an open NGS platform and is committed to maintaining and supporting its existing single-cell partnerships. "Our goal is to continue to develop the sequencing eco-system and support the best multiomics solutions like single-cell analysis," Barnard said. "We want customers to have the flexibility to adopt the tools that best fit their needs."

The acquisition closed on July 9, 2024, and has been funded with cash on hand.

About Illumina

Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments.