CSEM Tools for Life Sciences: 2022 in review

2022 is coming to end and 2023 is about to start!

2022 was dynamic for the life sciences industry with strong innovation rates in the aftermath of the #CoVID pandemic.

Life sciences companies’ central role in drug pricing and access to medicines puts them on the frontline of societal challenges like disease outbreak management, aging populations, increasing incidence of cancer and cardiac disorders, and antibiotic resistance. Companies need to adapt to a quickly changing clinical, regulatory, and business landscape. Innovation is vital and that’s where CSEM is supporting the industry meet the evolving needs of patients around the world.

Technology and data are opening new possibilities for patient care and operational efficiency across the life sciences sector. Our expertise, insights and technological capabilities are helping companies take full advantage.

CSEM’s Tools for Life Sciences technology pillars allow us to serve a large range of partners - from start-ups to multinationals - in the fields of drug discovery, diagnostics & health monitoring, and regenerative medicine.

Automated cell microsystems

Complex 3D cell models are revolutionizing personalized medicine in drug testing and tissue engineering. Implementing these mini-organs in the applied research and industrial landscape requires new tools for process standardization and parallelization. CSEM’s?team is highly skilled in developing solutions for in-vitro automated microphysiological systems (MPS) for cells, complex 3D models, organoids, and tissues mimicking the physiological conditions of organs.?

In collaboration with AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) and the 瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院 , CSEM helped develop a bioreactor and tissue model to mimic in-vitro the various load profiles that human spines are subjected to daily, such as flexion, extension, bending, and rotation. Such in-vitro model is critical to reproduce these mechanical stimulations so that researchers can yield identical results, ensuring the reliability of new drugs or therapies to treat musculoskeletal diseases like low back pain. See the publication for more details.

Another highlight focused on a new discipline, the so-called micro-histology, which is addressing this current need of aligning hundreds of organoids in one focal plane for imaging and analysis. The examination of the anatomy of the cells produced in 3D cell models is indeed of particular importance throughout the entire value chain. In collaboration with the?School of Life Sciences FHNW , with its advanced expertise in cell biology and in vitro toxicology, CSEM has developed a new approach to position organoids. HistoBrick ?offers precise co-planar positioning of 96 micro-tissues before dehydration, paraffin embedding, and sectioning. All micro-tissues are sectioned simultaneously at the same level resulting in reduced processing and analysis times at high yield.

CSEM is further involved in several grants with innovative biotech partners such as Bionomous for automating the sorting of Zebrafish eggs and larvae (see here ) and Parithera on?single cell isolation and sequencing for cancer diagnostics (see here ) and many others as REGENHU , Kugelmeiers Ltd. , InSphero , 3Brain AG , Limula , Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) .

Finally, emerging technologies and large companies met under the same roof at the 2nd edition of the Next Gen Organ-on-Chip & Organoids Workshop at the Campus Biotech in Geneva. 300 participants discovered innovative microphysiological systems and complex in vitro model industries with two keynote lectures from Don Ingber of Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Matthias Lutolf of 罗氏公司 Institute of Translational Bioengineering.

Biomonitoring

Point-of-care technologies are crucial as they can be used next to or directly where the information is needed, and when it comes to diagnostics, point-of-care solutions enable quick and cost-effective medical decisions – COVID-19 has been accelerating this domain.

Within several project we are developing key components to access valuable information from our body to predict early disease diagnosis, support patients with chronic disease via companion diagnostics and access the health status of people at home.

In particular we focus on clinically relevant information available in easy accessible body fluids as saliva, urine, interstitial body fluids and blood. CSEM work on precise liquid handling, sensor multi array and electronic readout plus our knowledge on AI, allow us to maximize the digital information we can obtain from low volume body fluids.

The 5th edition of the Swiss Symposium in Point of care diagnostics (co-organized by Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW , HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale and CSEM) was the occasion to hear, network and present our work in regards point of care diagnostics.?

Dr Antonella Santuccione Chadha from Women's Brain Foundation and Gyorgy Abel, MD, PhD from Lahey Hospital & Medical Center gave the keynote lectures on “Sex and gender differences along the patient journey” and “Global trends in Point-Of-Care diagnostics: new opportunities and challenges respectively”

Mathias Wipf , CEO of MOMM Diagnostics , presented the work carried out in collaboration by his team, FHNW and CSEM. MOMM develops high-sensitivity rapid diagnostic tests combining the cost advantages of lateral flow immunoassays with the sensitivity of ELISAs - all in a reader as simple as a blood glucose meter. This innovation opens previously laboratory-based markets for home- and self-testing.

Beyond health monitoring, cell culture monitoring is also a crucial feature in the bioprocess domain. Maracells is working at the development of an innovative CNT based solution for glucose continuous monitoring.

At the 7th edition of the CSEM Business Day, CSEM showed recent advances in regards the development of technologies for digital health. Siew-Veena Sahi from Testmate Health co-presented with CSEM, the recent results of their urine-based at home diagnostics kit for sexually transmitted diseases.

CSEM is further involved in several grants with other innovative biomonitoring & diagnostics partners such as bialoom , BioInitials , Deep Breath Intelligence , Ivoclar , Polar Electro Oy , Yum Health , Stat Peel , Surfix Diagnostics and Swiss Safe Collect SA .

Lab Automation

CSEM technologies allow to achieve reproducible and valuable results in a broad range of applications, from cell culture systems to diagnostics, through reliable handling and sample preparation and to work with smaller sample volumes enables faster results, with fewer materials and reagents consumed

Laboratory workstations, whose liquid-handling robots automate complex workflows, still rely on the manual setup of labware. The inaccurate configuration of trays, tubes, and plates can result in ruined tests, broken kits, costly delays, and lost patient samples.

In collaboration with Tecan , CSEM developed a completely new neuronal image comparison approach that can deal with vast variations in labware and decipher changes in illumination, reflections, and shadows. The DeckCheck ? system acquires and analyses images, flagging up discrepancies in labware objects and positions that it has compared to a reference image in under 1.5 seconds with 95% reliability, reducing risks and operators' workloads. The platform has been launched and its algorithm will also be valuable in other domains, such as quality control, security, and surveillance. More information here .

Another highlight was the completion of the technology transfer with Fluigent and the upcoming product launch of their new Non-Invasive Flow Sensor (NIFS). This new sensor complements Fluigent’s existing sensor portfolio by enabling flow control without sensor in contact with the fluids and without calibration. The new technology offers more reliability, versatility and better compatibility with biological applications since contamination risks are reduced. It opens for Fluigent opportunities in new markets such as diagnostics and cell culture. Stay tuned for the product launch in Q1, 2023!

Finally, we organized our 5th Workshop on Precision Liquid handling together with our valued partner Toolpoint for Lab Sciences . Bringing together 110 participants coming from the key players of the field, we could again discuss the latest innovations and create the seeds for new collaborations.?

Allschwil: here we are!

In October, we had the chance to open our brand-new offices and labs at the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Main Campus . Allschwil is the CSEM Life Science Hub in the Basel Area with two new technology teams focusing on Biosystems Engineering and AI for Life Sciences. Thanks to this new focus, CSEM will further increase its interactions with the Basel Life Science Cluster and develop new strengths in cellomics – a field of growing importance for precision medicine.

The CSEM Life Sciences team is sitting in different locations (Neuchatel, Allschwil, Alpnach and Landquart) and acts as a hub of competences for our partners.?

And a special highlight to close the 2022 review...

We were honored to welcome the President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis ?with Alexandre P. (CEO, CSEM) and Michael Altorfer (CEO, Swiss Biotech Association ) at?CSEM ’s booth during the Swiss Biotech Days in Basel . We highlighted the importance of #deeptech innovation to keep Switzerland's leading position in the Global Innovation Index . A big thank to Michael Altorfer for making this possible!

That is how the Tools for Life Sciences team faced the challenges of 2022...Stay tuned as more news are in the pipeline for 2023!

In the meantime, we wish you...

CSEM Tools for Life Sciences team

Samantha Paoletti , Gilles Weder , Lo?c B. , Stefano Cattaneo , Erika Gy?rvary , Matthias H?chemer , Christoph Joder ,? Moritz Kirschmann ,? Felix K. , Rapha?l Pugin , Tom Valentin , Frédéric Loizeau Vincent R.