CellChorus Awarded SBIR Phase I Grant by the U.S. National Science Foundation

More than $274,000 in funding from NSF will be used to develop microscale arrays to improve development and delivery of novel therapies

PRESS RELEASE

HOUSTON, Texas — June 28, 2023. CellChorus®, the dynamic single-cell analysis company™, has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to advance development of its Time-lapse Imaging Microscopy In Nanowell Grids™ (TIMING™) platform for dynamic single-cell analysis. The Phase I grant will be used to develop novel microscale arrays to support scaling dynamic single-cell analysis across the life sciences industry.

Immune cell-based therapies are revolutionizing patient care by engineering or recruiting cells to fight disease. Understanding the therapeutic potential of these therapies is complex due to the variation in how cells interact and perform, as well as the need to monitor immune cell function over time. To advance the next generation of cell‑based products, the field requires the ability to profile individual cell‑cell interactions and performance at scale.

“This funding will further development of novel arrays to build on the success of our early access laboratory based in Houston,” said Mohsen Fathi, PhD, Head of Technology at CellChorus. “This project will support scaling the only platform that can evaluate migration, contact dynamics, killing, survival, subcellular activity, and biomolecule secretion for the same individual cell over time and in high throughput to improve development and delivery of novel therapies.”

The TIMING platform comprehensively studies cells to gain a comprehensive understanding of how immune cells move, interact, kill, survive, and secrete biomolecules at single-cell resolution. Data and insights from the TIMING platform enable the field to develop, manufacture and deliver novel therapies faster, at less expense, and with higher rates of success to benefit patients in oncology, infectious diseases, and a wide range of other diseases and disorders.

“This award builds on our recent funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to advance development of a dedicated instrument platform for TIMING,” said Daniel Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of CellChorus.

All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program, also known as America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, undergo a rigorous merit-based review process. Once a small business is awarded a Phase I grant, it becomes eligible to apply for Phase II funding and additional supplements totaling up to $2 million.

The CellChorus TIMING platform is available through a commercial service offering in the CellChorus Innovation Lab. Data from TIMING assays have been featured in more than 20 peer-reviewed papers across a range of cell types and therapeutic areas. Experts in the field have leveraged TIMING data in many different applications, including research, preclinical development, clinical development, manufacturing, and the identification of biomarkers predictive of patient response. In addition to providing data on cellular movement, morphology, interactions, killing, survival and subcellular activity over time, the TIMING platform can provide data on individual cell phenotype and biomolecule secretions. Individual cells of interest can be retrieved for linked downstream analysis such as transcriptional profiling.

This grant is supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Number 2229323. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of NSF.

About CellChorus

CellChorus® is the leader in applying artificial intelligence to quantify the function and performance of cells over time to improve the development and delivery of novel therapies that improve patient care. The company applies Time-lapse Imaging Microscopy In Nanowell Grids™ (TIMING™) with neural network-based detection to identify how cells move, activate, kill, and survive at single-cell resolution. The patent-protected platform can link TIMING data and insights with information from other analysis modalities such as single-cell RNA sequencing to provide a comprehensive understanding of cellular function, state and phenotype. Please visit cellchorus.com for more information.

About the U.S. National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs

America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards more than $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development, helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $9.5 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

Source: CellChorus Inc.

Company Contact:
Daniel Meyer
CellChorus Inc.
TIMING@cellchorus.com