MELBOURNE, Australia, June 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Bluechiip Limited (ASX: BCT) - which has developed a unique asset-tracking solution initially for cryogenic sample management in the healthcare and life science industry - today announced that a successful pilot trial of its tracking solution by ATCC (www.atcc.org), a US-based leader in biological materials management and processes, has led to the first sales order for Bluechiip's products from ATCC.
ATCC is purchasing the bluechiip® solution so that they may be an early adopter of the bluechiip® technology and to facilitate enhancement of cryogenic sample management and bench research via temperature evaluation and tracking.
ATCC stores approximately 10 million biological samples of different formats. The repository portion of its facility contains 200 freezers to store biomaterials, including vapor-phase liquid nitrogen freezers, mechanical freezers and cold rooms. End users of these products and services originate from over 140 countries and include researchers in academia and government, as well as private industry. ATCC's collections encompass a wide range of biological materials for research, including but not limited to cell lines, microorganisms and bioproducts.
The pilot trial was a collaboration sponsored by Bluechiip, ATCC and Corning Life Sciences. The robust study was conducted at ATCC's biological resource facility in Manassas, Virginia. The pilot trial evaluated the bluechiip® technology across a comprehensive range of cryogenic sample management and cold chain processes. The pilot trial verified the bluechiip® tracking solution - which enables sample identification and temperature information to be read at temperatures as low as those reached in liquid nitrogen, approximately -196 degrees Celsius and enables data to be transmitted through frost.
Bluechiip's Managing Director, Brett Schwarz, said: "We are excited to receive our first sales order, particularly from a world leader in our first targeted market of biobanking and biorepositories. This is validation of the enormous potential and wideranging applications of the bluechiip® tracking solution."
Kathleen Wyatt, Manager, Inventory Control and Respository Operations, ATCC, said, "ATCC has a long history of exploring inventive and forward-thinking technologies in biological materials management. Bluechiip is elevating cold chain custody and temperature tracking to an exciting new level. This endeavour with Bluechiip has the potential to enhance future offerings by ATCC."
About Bluechiip Limited:
Bluechiip has developed a wireless tracking solution with temperature sensing capabilities for the healthcare and life science, security, defence and manufacturing industries which represents a generational change from current methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D) and microelectronic integrated circuit (IC)-based RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
The unique tag is based on MEMS technology and contains no electronics. The tag can either be embedded or manufactured into a storage product, such as vials or bags. Easy identification, along with any associated information from the tag such as temperature can be detected by a reader, which can also sense the temperature of the tagged items. The traditional identification technologies have significant limitations. Whereas a barcode requires a visible tag or line-of-sight optical scan, bluechiip® technology does not. Unlike labels, barcodes and RFID, the bluechiip® technology can sense the temperature of each item a tag is attached to, or embedded in.
The bluechiip® technology has initial applications in the healthcare industry particularly those businesses which require cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories). bluechiip® offers the only technology that enables accurate and reliable tracking of products including stem cells, cord blood, and other biospecimens. In addition to functioning in extreme temperatures, the bluechiip® tracking solution can survive autoclaving, gamma irradiation sterilization, humidification, centrifuging, cryogenic storage and frosting. The bluechiip® technology has other healthcare applications in pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Several other key markets outside of healthcare include coldchain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation.
Further information is available at www.bluechiip.com
For more information:
Brett Schwarz | Richard Allen |
Managing Director, Bluechiip Limited | Oxygen Financial Public Relations |
Ph: +61-419-367-590 | Ph: +61-3-9915-6341 |
