The year 2012 has been very eventful of the company. What according to you are some of the major highlights of the year?
During August 2012, bluechiip signed a strategic partnership with Gentris Corporation, which involved Gentris joining bluechiip's early adopter program and buying the bluechiip trial system. The strategic partnership with Gentris Corporation will be focused on expanding Gentris' service model to include temperature tracking services. Gentris agreed to join bluechiip's early adopter program (EAP) as well as purchase a bluechiip trial system.

In June 2012, the first sales order for bluechiip's products was from ATCC, following successful trials. The sale enables ATCC to be an early adopter of Bluechiip's technology and to facilitate enhancement of cryogenic sample management and bench research via temperature evaluation and tracking.

During May 2012, the Australian Synchrotron used bluechiip's technology for protein crystallography tracking and automation. The project was enabled via a $50,000 grant under the Victorian State Government's STIUP Voucher Program. Also, in May 2012, the US-based Plexus joined hands to manufacture bluechiip's matchbox reader hardware. The agreement complemented an earlier agreement with Geneva-based STMicroelectronics to manufacture bluechiip's unique tracking tags. Furthermore, from January-to-March 2012, we raised $1.526 million in private placements.

How do you plan to expand your reach in Asia Pacific and beyond? What are the future plans of the company?

We plan to do deals with companies such as Gentris, ATCC, Plexus and Inpeco to expand our reach. The outlook that we have at bluechiip about the future of the industry is that there will be storage of over one billion tissue specimens around the world, accumulating at a rate of more than 100 million specimens per year. Global biobanks market will reach $22.3 billion by 2017, driven by favorable political and scientific environment, enhanced government funding and greater public awareness and support.

Moreover, the US stem cell market is expected to reach around $889 million by 2012. More than one million cord blood units will be stored in over 230 private and public cord blood banks worldwide. The sector will witness over one million IVF stimulations globally per annum with increasing number of IVF cycles and samples being stored. Furthermore, there will be growth of cryopreservation and extensive future applications in healthcare, security, defense and manufacturing industries.