Spin-off company cooperating with a firm in the United States
Freiburg, Sep 20, 2017
The patented technology recognizes, photographs and prints single cells. Photo: cytena Ltd
The spin-off company cytena Ltd. that originated at the University of Freiburg has reached a cooperation agreement with the American firm Molecular Devices for sales in the United States and Canada. Molecular Devices will bring to market a lab device developed by cyntena that goes by the name of "CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer", which recognizes, photographs and prints single cells. "This partnership will further promote our company's growth and enable us to provide exceptional service to our customers," says Jonas Schöndube, founding member and CEO of cytena.
Single cells come into play when modern active agents or so-called biological, are developed and cell lines are manufactured for research purposes. Furthermore, scientists need them in order to conduct genetic analyses on individual cells for cancer and stem cell research. Supported by an automated imaging process, the technology developed by cytena encapsulates cells in microdrops and transmits them onto any given examination platform. Through the gentle process, the cells are viable even after printing and can be analyzed or cultured in clone colonies.
Cytena is a spin-off from the Lab for MEMS Applications at the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg. The engineers Jonas Schöndube und André Groß have been working on the technology since 2011. Together with the technology's inventors, Dr. Peter Koltay, the economist Benjamin Steimle and BioFluidix GmbH helped found the company cytena in 2014. The company has since received multiple awards: among others, it received EXIST research transfer program funding of nearly 450,000 euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. In 2015 it landed first place for the CyberOne Hightech Award Baden-Württemberg in the "Start-Up" category with 10,000 euros along with 2,500 euros for the advancement award by the Form for Applied Informatics and Microsystem Technology. In 2015 a private investor and a high-tech start-up fund invested 1.1 million euros in venture capital in the company.
Press release on cyenta's receipt of the CyberOne Hightech Award (in German only)
Presse release on the High-Tech start-up fund financing (in German only)
Article about cytena in the university publication uniˈleben (in German only)
Contact:
Benjamin Steimle
cytena GmbH
Tel.: 0761/203-73219
E-Mail:steimle@cytena.com