NanoFCM Co., Ltd. has announced that it has established a new facility to support existing and potential users of its Nano-Flow Cytometry platform.

The Centre of Excellence is located in Medicity, a biotech incubator in Nottingham, UK. It will allow a close interaction with the European scientific community, as well as participation in joint research projects or consortia. The Centre of Excellence consists of a fully functioning laboratory, equipped with two NanoAnalyzer N30 instruments, allowing the measurement of biological and synthetic substrates, such as extracellular vesicles, nanoparticle carriers, virus, mitochondria and gold nanoparticles.

In addition to technical and scientific capabilities, NanoFCM Co., Ltd.’s new facility includes a sales office to serve the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. The Centre of Excellence is led by Dr Ben Peacock, Application Scientist, whose research at Sheffield University has focused on exosomes and NanoFCM Co., Ltd.’s managing director is Dr Dimitri Aubert, who is also Global Vice-President for Sales and Marketing.

NanoFCM Co., Ltd.’s parent company, NanoFCM Inc., is headquartered in Xiamen, Fujian province, China. It has developed nano-flow cytometry out of Professor Xiaomei Yan’s work at Xiamen University. This technology has the unique ability to perform multiple parameter analysis on sub-micron particles, which are typically too small to be detected by conventional and micro flow cytometry. In addition to the assessment of fluorescent probes on small particles, nano-flow cytometry measures particle size, size distribution and concentration similarly to a particle analyser, and with the accuracy & resolution of electron microscopy. "NanoFCM has focused on the Chinese market during its first 4 years of existence and it has been very successful with the nano-bio research community. We felt this year was the right time to expand internationally, starting with Europe, and shortly afterwards in North America. This network of support and sales offices will allow to sustain a global user base" said Dr Shaobin Zhu, CEO of NanoFCM Inc.

The NanoAnalyzer platform offers a flexible, high throughput solution to both academic and private research organisations working on nanoparticle entities. Operating very similarly to a conventional flow cytometer, it lets the operator screen for a wide array of biological markers, whether they are present at the surface or inside the particle. Fluorescence-based detection can perform using a vast array of fluorophores already commercially available, and familiar staining protocols. By simultaneously measuring the scatter signal for each particle, it is possible to derive the size characteristics of each subpopulation, as well as their absolute concentration.

"Technological advances provided by NanoFCM’s NanoAnalyzer platform will turbocharge research on the biological functions of extracellular vesicles and their use as diagnostic and therapeutic tools for diseases" said Dimitri Aubert. "In addition to the field of EVs, NanoFCM also aims to bring significant analytical capability improvements to gene therapy, vaccines and drug delivery research areas, all being widely represented in Europe."

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