Sound waves unsticking cells could save billions by stopping bad clinical trials before they begin
(L-R) Luke Cox (CEO), Adam Price (Acoustic Engineer), Ximena Vasto Anzaldo (Cell Biologist)
Bristol-based biotech Impulsonics has resolved a 100-year-old paradox in cell growth techniques for drug discovery and cell therapies by replacing an outdated chemical process with a gentle acoustic approach.
For decades, the pharmaceutical and cell therapy industries have faced a paradox: to study or test drug interactions on human cells the cells must first be unstuck from their growth surfaces. Traditionally, this is performed using harsh chemical enzymes that damage critical surface proteins in a way that would never happen in the human body.
This is particularly important given 60% of all clinical drugs, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in R&D and market value, rely on interacting with these proteins.
Impulsonics announced today that is has developed a new technique for quickly unsticking cells using light-touch chemical cues and gentle sound waves that is totally enzyme-free, highly scalable and compatible with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) approaches.
Why are enzymes such a big deal?
The use of digestive enzymes was first demonstrated in 1916 and has been the standard approach for the multi-billion dollar drug development and cell therapy industries ever since. They work by deliberately “cleaving” (cutting) many of the surface proteins off the cells to enable them to be unstuck from their sterile plastic growth surfaces.
The impact of these enzymes has been documented on many different surface proteins across diverse cell types particularly in essential immune cells and stem cells critical to emerging cell therapies. Cell behaviour is extremely complex meaning this chemical damage introduces unpredictable variables into the results research including:
False Negatives: Enzyme damage can alter cell function, preventing some cells from dying when they should, thus masking the apparent impact of a potentially strong drug candidate or masking a potentially toxic effect.
False Positives: Conversely, damage can make some cells more susceptible to death, thereby overestimating the efficiency of a potential therapy.
Reduced clinical efficacy: For therapeutic cells, this damage can fatally impact their ability to modulate the immune system and travel toward their target location in the human body, potentially reducing efficacy of these ultra-high cost treatments.
In an industry where 90% of clinical trials fail this means enzymatic cell culture could be contributing to the two largest contributors: poor clinical efficacy (40-50% of failures) and drug toxicity (30% of failures). Each individual clinical trial failure can cost over $1Bn directly and it is estimated over $50Bn is spent annually on failed cancer clinical trials alone. Cell therapies can also cost $10ks-$100ks per treatment so ensuring maximum efficacy is critical.
“Every biologist knows that relying on trypsin is a compromise but for decades it has been the only practical way to grow cells at scale. Protein cleaving has potentially interfered with nearly every piece of pre-clinical data ever gathered. This technique marks an end to that compromise and an opportunity to remove a critical variable from the billion dollar question of whether a drug will work or not”
These enzymes are ubiquitous and must be used every time cells are moved to a fresh culture container. In a typical cell culture this must be done every 2-5 days in a process called cell passaging. It is also required before harvesting the cells for analysis or for use as a treatment, for example in cell therapies.
“Trypsin is a century-old technical blind spot that has quietly sabotaged countless drug candidates. My hope is this approach will de-risk the entire pre-clinical pipeline for the most common drug targets,” said Impulsonics CEO Dr Luke Cox. “I believe that we’re about to make this gold-standard of data the new baseline in labs worldwide.”
Gentler enzymes have been an ongoing quest for the industry but even the gentlest of approaches have still been shown to negatively impact critical surface receptors. Enzyme-free chemicals have limited efficacy for most cell types and can also cause unintended cell death. Alternative approaches such as special heat-sensitive plates increase consumable costs 10x and expose the cells to heat shock. The other main approach has been cell scraping, which is hugely skilled & labour intensive while also being bad for sensitive cells.
In contrast, the Impulsonics technique takes only minutes to perform, is totally compatible with standard labware and can be fitted into a benchtop device. It can also be used as part of highly scalable automated solutions. This means high quality cells with intact surface proteins can be rolled out across the industry offering rapid improvements in efficiency and reliability.
Impulsonics is now opening up an extremely limited number of opportunities for forward-looking industry collaborators including pharmaceutical companies and automation providers to be the first to integrate this new gold standard of cell quality into their processes. They are also seeking strategic investors to help bring the technology to laboratories worldwide. Please make contact at enquiry@impulsonics.com to find out more.
About Impulsonics
Impulsonics Ltd is the deep-tech start-up that taught cells to dance.
They are dedicated to making biotech automation simple and scalable so scientists can focus on the problems that matter. Their unique technology leverages acoustic waves to move cells and particles around inside standard labware without touching them, streamlining existing processes and enabling unique new capabilities.
They were founded in 2023 by a team including Professors Bruce Drinkwater, Anthony Croxford and James Armstrong from the University of Bristol. They have raised over £450k in pre-seed funding from SFC, BBI & select angels and over £300k in grant and prize funding from Innovate UK and the BioInnovation Institute.
For immediate investor, partnership or press inquiries, please contact: Impulsonics Ltd. enquiry@impulsonics.com
