Another one of the cool things about science in the Boston area? It’s not just the star power of the scientists, it’s what that power is applied to.

A little while ago, I attended a talk by David Weitz (Harvard) on the promise of droplet-based microfluidics devices, a new technology which promises to make DNA sequencing, cell sorting high throughput drug screens cheaper, smaller, faster, and better. Promise is quickly becoming a reality at RainDance Techonologies, a biotech company based in Lexington, MA, founded by Weitz and a few other high wattage stars.

Jonathan Rothberg, the founder and chairman of RainDance, also happened to invent the technology behind 454, responsible for sequencing James Watson’s complete genome and cracking the bee colony collapse disorder. As if that’s not enough weight, three Nobel Prize Laureates sit on RainDance’s scientific advisory board.

RainDance, which was founded in 2004, was recently awarded a $250,000 cooperative research grant by The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to develop a droplet-based fluorescence assisted cell sorter (FACS), an instrument which sorts individual labeled cells based on desired characteristics – a very common technique used in research and diagnostics labs worldwide. FACS machines on the market today cost on the order of $100,000 each (depending on the machine). If RainDance can make a tiny FACS machine for a fraction of the price, they will make a huge contribution to laboratory research, both in the States and in developing countries, where dropping 100 grand on a single machine is often not an option.

Not only that, but RainDance developed the RDT 1000, a microfluidics-based instrument for DNA sequencing. The Broad Institute is one of the early recipients of this machine and all its accoutrements, prior to its official release. In addition to genome sequencing, researchers at the Broad will test RDT 1000 for applications including characterizing the human microbiome.

That’s the power of a tightly-knit scientific community. Ideas born in academic research labs can be translated into technology and fed back into the labs, all in a few years.