CytoTronics, Inc., a pioneer of semiconductor-based platforms for cell biology research, is proud to announce that Nature Communications has published findings on their novel high-throughput semiconductor platform that will offer a dynamic, real-time assessment of live cells’ characteristics, such as epithelial barrier properties, which are crucial for understanding diseases like cancer, fibrosis, inflammation, and cystic diseases.
The research paper, titled “A Semiconductor 96-Microplate Platform for Electrical-Imaging Based High-Throughput Phenotypic Screening” was authored by co-founders Jeffrey Abbott, Vince (Wenxuan) Wu, and Duane Sword, and showcases the platform’s capability to rapidly assess cellular responses to various compounds and treatments, providing valuable insights for drug development and biomedical research.
The CytoTronics semiconductor platform captures an order of magnitude more information per biological sample than previous commercial techniques and will provide scientists with more front-end screening information. This allows for a better understanding of how prospective drugs are affecting live-cell biology, enabling faster iterations on drug design, or finding dead-ends faster.
“Our platform represents a significant advancement in the world of high-throughput phenotypic screening,” stated Jeffrey Abbott, co-founder and CEO of CytoTronics. “Our technology allows you to see signals from thousands of single cells. This opens the door for assessing heterogeneity of cell populations and improves sensitivity as you get signal even with just a few cells. For example, in personalized medicine applications using extracted human tissue, being able to assess cellular function with less starting material is a huge win for the industry.”
The platform is adaptable to a wide range of cell types and applications, making it a valuable tool for researchers in diverse fields.
“We believe that our platform has the potential to become an indispensable component of drug discovery and biomedical research,” stated Vince Wu, co-founder and CTO of CytoTronics. “Our advancements in semiconductor screening represents a huge engineering feat of exceptional scale, more than two orders of magnitude higher experiment throughput than any semiconductor-based biology experiment to date.”
CytoTronics is commercializing the published semiconductor technology and bringing it to market in the form of instruments and microplates. The first of its products will launch next year at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) in Boston, MA during the week of February 3 – 7, 2024. Applications will include early-stage drug compound screening, downstream toxicity assays, immuno-oncology, and combining the techniques from the paper with electrophysiological measurements for cardiotoxicity and neuroscience applications.
About CytoTronics
CytoTronics is developing high-throughput, highly flexible, semiconductor-based platforms for cell biology research. The core of CytoTronics’ platform technology was developed in the labs of Harvard University and is poised to revolutionize pharmaceutical research across drug discovery, immunotherapy, and cell therapy applications. For more information, visit cytotronics.com
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