NEW YORK – Single-cell analysis company Flexomics said Monday that it has been awarded a two-year, $2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to further develop its core single-cell screening technology for new applications.
Founded in 2019, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Flexomics is developing a screening platform capable of simultaneous functional and genomic analyses of hundreds of thousands of individual cells in parallel. The approach combines live-cell analysis and single-cell genomics, enabling the interrogation of cellular interactions and dynamic responses, the company said.
More specifically, the platform features a high-density picowell array for the isolation and fluorescent imaging of single cells combined with a high-throughput nucleic-acid barcoding system that can be deciphered both by fluorescence microscopy and by sequencing, according to the company's grant abstract.
Flexomics said that so far it has focused on high-throughput identification and characterization of neoantigen-specific T-cell receptors.
The award follows a $2 million SBIR grant Flexomics received from the National Cancer Institute in 2022 to further develop its technology for the T-cell receptor work.