I sat down recently with our CEO, Vivienne Williams, to ask what are Cellix’s plans for the future and why are we so excited for BIO International? Here’s what she had to say.
Vivienne:
Over the last years, we have been putting a lot of work in behind the scenes and it has resulted in our novel gene therapy application. I think we have killer technology for gene transfection on a chip.
This, paired with our impedance spectrometry analysis, means we can not only do gene transfection on a chip but we can also increase the efficiency. In-line, impedance analysis on a chip allows us to actually pre-select cells. It means we can essentially clean up samples before they undergo gene transfection which is a totally underestimated target.
There is no quality control on cells right now before gene transfection and I think in terms of QC in the cell manufacturing industry it’s going to be crucial. I think we have a really key component of the process in the palm of our hand right now.
It will be really interesting to see the reaction companies have to our tech at BIO. We tested the water at BIO Europe which has led to engagement with some interesting potential partners. So there’s definitely interest! The number of meetings we’ve got with tech giants at BIO at the moment is a testament that people are looking for this and they know they have to do something in this space.
There aren’t that many alternatives to existing viral drug delivery. Viral delivery is the more common method right now but that brings its own issues in terms of manufacturing. Any non-viral transfection combined with QC and in particular label-free QC of the cells in a closed loop system is a no brainer really.
For Cellix, the next 6-12 months are going to be really exciting in terms of who we end up partnering with. I’ve no doubt that we’ll partner with somebody, the question is who. So watch this space.
On top of BIO, we’ll also be present at LES, Cyto, and MicroTas - we like to keep in touch with the academic community (they still tend to be at the forefront of cutting edge tech). We’ll probably be at BIO Europe again and then maybe other BIO conferences around the world.