Kinetic River Completes NIH SBIR Project on Cell Analysis

Custom flow cytometry instrumentation developer Kinetic River Corp. has completed a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The competitive Phase I grant was awarded to Kinetic River in 2017 by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), which fosters research focused on development of innovative biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic platforms. The SBIR award funded development of Kinetic River’s “Arno” cell-analysis technology. The technology expands multiparameter capabilities of flow cytometry while eliminating the need for compensation, yet it retains compatibility with cell sorting and a familiar workflow for the end user. Further, the simplified design reduces instrument footprint and complexity.

Flow cytometry has long been hampered by limitations in the number of concurrent fluorescent labels that can be distinguished in a cell assay. Existing workarounds all have drawbacks, from burdensome procedures used to compensate for spectral crosstalk to the complete destruction of cells analyzed with mass spectrometry.

“We are very pleased with the progress we have made,” said Giacomo Vacca, president of Kinetic River. “Performing the CD4 assay for HIV monitoring — traditionally done using four detectors — using only two detectors was the clearest demonstration yet of the power of our technology. Now that we have shown that our approach works well on live cells, we are hard at work building an analyzer capable of handling all common assays — more simply, and in a smaller footprint, than is possible with traditional machines. We are very grateful for the opportunity that was afforded us by NIGMS and the SBIR program.”

The first product version planned, Arno-1, is a 14-parameter analyzer using only two lasers, with no compensation required for overlapping fluor emission spectra. This analyzer will be compact, robust and suitable as a laboratory workhorse for all common assays, as well as many assays of moderate complexity. A high-channel-count version of the Arno platform, Arno-2, is planned, with the ability to deliver 26 parameters using only three lasers. This will be aimed at immunophenotyping and similar applications with a need for a high degree of multiplexing.

Kinetic River is a biophotonics design and product development company specializing in flow cytometry.