Fluidigm Corp. FLDM recently announced the availability of Single-Cell ATAC-seq, an epigenetics application, for the C1 system. The application is also available on Script Hub – a new web portal within the company’s C1 Open App program. The other tools in the program are C1 Script Builder, Open App IFC and Open App Reagent Kit. These tools are available for free to C1 system users as well as researchers.
Co-developed by the Greenleaf Lab, the Chang Lab and Fluidigm, ATAC-seq solves a major problem faced by researchers with current methods for assaying chromatin accessibility, nucleosome positions, TF occupancy, or higher-order annotations of biological "state" of chromatin.
These studies generally require multiple assays and tens or hundreds of millions of cells as input material, averaging out heterogeneity in cellular populations. However, ATAC-seq relies on in-vitro transposition of sequencing tags into areas of accessible chromatin. The application rapidly generates multimodal data defining the regulatory landscape of chromatin using much fewer cells as compared to other methods.
The new application reflects Fluidigm’s focus on developing new tools that support genomic research. The company’s impressive product portfolio and strong growth opportunities across both production genomics and single-cell genomics applications are its key growth catalysts.
Fluidigm recently announced a new automated library preparation application for targeted sequencing, optimized for the Juno system, which it expects to commercialize by the fourth quarter of 2015.
Juno system, released earlier this year, enables scientists prepare samples for various Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) genotyping applications. The system helps to complete SNP genotyping analyses of samples in less than three hours.
Libraries prepared on Fluidigm’s Juno system can be sequenced on any Illumina ILMN sequencer. The new application for targeted sequencing is designed to support genomic coverage density of up to 5,000 targeted genomic loci per sample.
Apart from this, Fluidigm expects to launch Polaris in the middle of 2015, which it introduced at the annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting in Feb 2015.
We believe that these new products will drive instrument sales going forward. However, weak Biomark system sales pose as a major headwind in the near term.
Moreover, the company’s top line continues to be hurt by unfavorable foreign exchange rate. Management slashed its top-line projection for 2015, which is a major negative. Meanwhile, growth in Japan remains sluggish, largely due to delays in funding disbursements.
Stocks to Consider
Currently, Fluidigm carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Better-ranked stocks are Masimo Corp MASI and Globus Medical GMED. While Masimo sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Globus Medical holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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