Proteios Technology, Inc.

Currently available technologies for cell isolation use a multi-step process. This process is time-consuming, usually requires centrifugation, and may cause cell stress and cellular damage that results in lower cell yield and viability. There is also a clear lack of alternatives for GMP-grade reagents to immunomagnetically isolate cells - both in a clinical and pharmaceutical setting.

Our approach for multivariate cell isolation uses biologically-safe reagents in a single-step process that supports multiple cell release strategies. It will allow for direct isolation of T cell and Natural Killer (NK) cells from blood with up to a 75% reduction in cell isolation time. This will make therapeutic cell isolation less strenuous, faster, more affordable, and more efficient than available antibody-based cell isolation technology. The proven ability of aptamers to isolate cells directly from blood will be combined with Proteios' strategies to efficiently synthesize aptamers, selectively capture cells on silica substrates, and selectively release target cells through orthogonal elution strategies.

We are developing an aptamer-based cell isolation platform for isolating hematopoietic progenitor cells directly from a variety of sources - such as placenta perfusate and umbilical cord blood - to initiate the cell manufacturing process by ex vivo differentiation. Our product uses an aptamer-peptide chimera in which the aptamer binds to a cell surface molecule of interest and the peptide binds to silica - which allows cells to be reversibly captured on silica. Proteios Chimera technology has three main advantages over current antibody-based cell isolation platforms: 1) aptamers can be manufactured faster than monoclonal antibodies and at a much lower cost, 2) Proteios Chimeras have a much longer shelf life than antibodies, and 3) synthesis of GMP-grade aptamers is much faster and cheaper than the production of monoclonal antibodies.

Cell therapies are a multibillion-dollar industry that is growing rapidly. In addition to their promise for combating viral infection, they are also of high interest as cancer immunotherapies - which highlights the broad need for technologies that can efficiently isolate and differentiate NK cells as well as T cells. Proteios is specifically designing a cGMP clinical instrument for cell separation without the limitations of other instruments which were designed for research and later adapted for clinical use.