Kinetic River Receives NIH Grant

Flow cytometry instrumentation developer Kinetic River Corp. has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Laser beam (blue) excites fluorescence (green) in a sample flowing within a microchannel. Detection filters (red) separate the collected fluorescence emission light. Courtesy of Kinetic River Corp.

The six-month Phase I grant, totaling about $225,000, was issued to Kinetic River by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), an NIH institute fostering extramural research focused on development of innovative biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic platforms. The funding aims to help develop Kinetic River's Arno cell-analysis technology. This approach is aimed at expanding the multiplexing capabilities of flow cytometry while reducing the compensation issues connected with spectral overlap of fluorescent dyes and reducing instrument footprint and complexity. Having proven the concept with internal funding in early-stage tests, Kinetic River is now looking to accelerate the Arno development timeline with the newly available resources.

"Receiving approval for our SBIR grant application is a huge milestone," said Giacomo Vacca, president of Kinetic River. "It validates our focused and extensive efforts to develop radically innovative technologies for cell analysis. Our proprietary Arno technology could have a wide impact in the flow cytometry industry, from reducing the size and cost of workhorse, six to nine color instruments, to enabling machines able to measure 40 or more cell parameters simultaneously. We are thrilled to have been given the opportunity to speed up the path to market for this product platform."

The Arno technology, unlike techniques like mass cytometry, can be incorporated in both cell analyzers and cell sorters, and is completely compatible with accepted workflows. Two product versions are planned. Arno-1 is an eight- to 11-parameter analyzer using a single laser with no compensation required for overlapping fluor emission spectra. Arno-1 will be compact, robust and suitable as a laboratory workhorse for all common assays, as well as many assays of moderate complexity.

The high-channel-count version of the platform, Arno-2 is designed for detection of at least 40 parameters, and could be extended to 60 parameters. Arno-2 will be aimed at immunophenotyping and similar applications with a need for a high degree of multiplexing.

Kinetic River Corp. is a biophotonics design and product development company specializing in life science research and biomedical applications.