Intabio Awarded $2.3 Million SBIR Fast Track Grant to Support Commercial Development of a Novel Microchip-based Solution for Biopharmaceutical Analysis
NEWARK, Calif., Aug. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Intabio, Inc., announced today the receipt of a Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will provide $2.3 million in funding for advancing Intabio’s commercial development of Intabio’s Blaze™ system, which utilizes a proprietary microchip technology to separate, quantitate, and seamlessly transfer intact biotherapeutic proteins by electrospray into a mass spectrometer (MS) for molecular identification. The SBIR award is the result of a highly competitive, peer-reviewed, federal grant program supporting significant innovations that enable new treatments and cures for disease to be delivered to patients more efficiently.
Intabio is developing the first analytical solution to seamlessly integrate capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) and MS, two pillars of protein characterization in biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. The Blaze system includes a bench-top instrument, microfluidic chip, reagent kit, and software. Blaze utilizes lab-on-a-chip functionality to integrate (1) separation of protein isoforms by cIEF, (2) real-time, whole-column imaging of protein isoforms for detection and quantification, and (3) MS sample preparation and delivery of each separated isoform by electrospray into an adjacent MS to provide molecular identity. Because the Blaze system can provide an analysis of product quality in minutes rather than weeks, and can process 100-fold more samples at a fraction of the cost of more traditional processes, Blaze can enable the accelerated timelines required for breakthrough therapy applications and reduce the risk of therapeutic delays and development failures that can cost tens of millions of dollars.
“We are delighted to receive this grant award from NCATS to advance our development of the Blaze system,” said Erik Gentalen, CTO and Principal Investigator of the award. “The SBIR award is an important validation of the significant impact that Blaze will have in biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. The funding will be targeted to improving our commercial competitiveness, including optimizing our chip manufacturing process and improving our consumable design, as well as enhancing hardware and software features for the commercial system.”
About Intabio
Intabio, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based company developing analytical solutions to transform biotherapeutic development and manufacturing with products that provide early product quality characterization and profound efficiency gains across all stages of biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Intabio’s first product, the Blaze™ system, is a microchip-based instrument system that will provide rapid detection and identification of subtle protein modifications – modifications that can undermine the stability and efficacy of biotherapeutic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. For more information, please visit us at www.intabio.com.
CONTACT: info@intabio.com
SOURCE Intabio, Inc.