Investment to expand cell line development capabilities and accelerate customer workflows, as part of its diverse and tailored antibody solutions
Cambridge, UK, and Porto, Portugal, 03 October 2023: Sphere Fluidics, a company developing single cell analysis systems underpinned by its patented picodroplet technology, today announced the Cyto-Mine® platform has been selected by FairJourney Biologics, a world leading end-to-end antibody partner, providing integrated services across antibody discovery, engineering, and production, to expand its cell line development capabilities. FairJourney Biologics has adopted the platform as part of the launch for its latest cell line development services, to streamline and accelerate customer workflows.
FairJourney Biologics’ team of experts comprises an extensive knowledge of cellular biology, enabling them to tailor cell lines precisely to their partners’ unique requirements. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies and meticulous quality control measures, FairJourney Biologics consistently delivers high-performing, stable cell lines that serve as the foundation for efficient antibody production and therapeutics development. Cyto-Mine’s advanced features, such as selection of producer clones, monoclonality assurance, significant time savings, flexible assay designs, GLP compliance support, and regulatory compatibility, seamlessly complement FairJourney Biologics’ services, providing partners with comprehensive and efficient solutions for their research and development endeavors.
Traditional processes for finding novel antibody targets or developing stable cell lines are typically time-consuming, often inefficient, and difficult to scale. Cyto-Mine is an automated platform which integrates single cell screening, sorting, dispensing, imaging, and clone verification, with proof of monoclonality. Underpinned by Sphere Fluidics’ patented, microfluidic picodroplet technology, it provides an integrated system with an easy-to-use and intuitive interface that can automatically, yet gently, screen up to 40 million cells in a matter of hours, compared with 10,000 typically achieved using multi-step manual techniques. This accelerated throughput is already widely recognized across a variety of research areas, including antibody discovery, cell line development, cell engineering and synthetic biology. The platform also facilitates rapid, high-throughput single cell manipulation and analysis across an expanding range of emerging research areas, including precision genome editing, cell therapy research and cellular diagnostics.
FairJourney Biologics’ partners will also benefit from the Cyto-Mine’s recent software updates, supporting FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance and including a full Installation Qualification / Operation Qualification (IQ/OQ) package for pharmaceutical quality assurance, extending the system’s applications into drug manufacturing operations1.
Richard Hammond, Chief Technical Officer, Sphere Fluidics, said: “The FairJourney Biologics team has an extensive track record of expertise across antibody discovery, engineering, and production, enabling them to solve unique and challenging projects. We feel proud that the Company has recognized the potential of the Cyto-Mine to advance its cell line development workflows and the benefits it can give to customers. We have worked closely to support the system’s integration and will continue to provide technical support as needed; we very much look forward to successes to come from FairJourney Biologics’ new services.”
António Barroso, Head of Cell Development Division, FairJourney Biologics, commented: “We are committed to providing the tools and resources needed to advance scientific research and accelerate drug discovery and development. Our new service has been purpose-built to help researchers and scientists in these fields achieve their goals with greater efficiency, accuracy, and reliability. The integration of Sphere Fluidics’ Cyto-Mine platform into our cell line development workflows enables us to best cater to our partners’ needs, to provide high-quality, customized cell lines in a fraction of the time.”
- Press release (5th July, 2023) Sphere Fluidics expands Cyto-Mine capabilities to meet cGMP requirements for drug manufacture workflows