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Scipio bioscience Announces Its Seed FundingScipio bioscience, a Paris-based biotechnology company devoted to providing a novel sample preparation solution for single-cell studies in the form of benchtop kits, announces today the completion of its initial fundraising. A total of €1.2m has been obtained from two European seed funds: Paris, France-based Seventure Partners' Quadrivium I seed fund and Bonn, Germany-based High-Tech Gründerfonds. These funds will fuel the reinforcement of the R&D team focused on the completion of the first prototype kit, dedicated to single-cell transcriptomics. Scipio bioscience exploits a proprietary technology for the preparation of samples for single-cell profiling based on barcoding in a test tube format. Scipio bioscience's sample preparation solution for single-cell-omics is freed of the substantial investment and running costs of existing technologies, while achieving the flexibility and scalability required in state-of-the-art research. The technology was developed by Prof Stuart Edelstein, a world-renowned biophysicist, who leads the company as President, joined by Pierre Walrafen, Ph.D., an experienced biotech manager, as CEO. "The costs and constraints of available methods for sample preparation have hampered widespread adoption of single-cell approaches so far", says Prof Stuart Edelstein. "We overcome these hurdles by providing a simple kit-based technology, requiring no specific devices, to prepare thousands of cells for profiling studies in a test tube setup. We believe this will make single-cell RNA-sequencing a routine laboratory tool, for the benefit of patients and scientists." "There is an evident need for accessible single-cell transcriptomics solutions and studies at the single-cell level will represent a major share of the sequencing market", adds Philippe Tramoy, Director of Quadrivium 1. "Scipio bioscience's solution addresses this need, with the potential to both drastically reduce cost and expand the fields of applications, in both clinical and basic research." Scipio bioscience is housed in the iPEPS-ICM incubator of the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM), located in the celebrated Parisian Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. The ICM offers cutting-edge core facilities, including the genomics and bioinformatics platforms. Collaborations are being initiated with ICM laboratories as well as other leading European research institutions to secure access to samples and user feedback. Scipio bioscience plans to expand R&D operations into Germany in 2018. Philippe Tramoy, Partner at the Quadrivium 1 seed fund at Seventure Partners, Prof Stéphane Le Crom, head of the Omics network at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) and Frank Hensel, Ph.D., Sr Invstment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, serve on the Strategy Committee chaired by Prof Stuart Edelstein.
About Seventure Partners
About Quadrivium 1 seed fund
About the High-Tech Gründerfonds About Scipio bioscience
Scipio bioscience develops a new generation of single-cell analysis
sample preparation, to answer the growing need of clinical & fundamental
research labs. The patent-based technology is based on an innovative
chemical approach conceived by Prof. Stuart Edelstein, a world-famous
bio-physician, very present in the academic and entrepreneurial worlds.
The first application of Scipio's technology is dedicated to study the
transcriptome, a highly strategic research area. Scientific partnerships
with academic labs, such as the ICM - Brain & Spine Institute, Pitié
Salpêtrière hospital, Paris - are ongoing, in order to develop the study
& industrialization phases of the technology.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171114005844/en/ |
