AK AD EUM L IFE SCI E N C ES
Buoyant Microbubbles Rise Above the Limitations of Other Isolation Technologies BY MICHAEL MALONEY DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, AKADEUM LIFE SCIENCES
In the isolation technology market, slow and bulky reigns supreme. With status-quo processes that have not progressed in the past 40 years, the market has been yearning for faster, leaner, more agile products—but nobody could seem to improve upon well-known methods like magneticsbased separation. Nobody, that is, until now. THESE LITTLE BUBBLES ARE MAKING BIG WAVES The greatest innovations are often those that transform an entire industry, and Ann Arbor-based biotechnology company Akadeum Life Sciences has done just that. The team refused to accept the long-standing problems in sample preparation as a necessary evil, so they set out to find a better way. Meeting the needs of evolving industries such as cell therapy and diagnostics, their elegantly simple solution uses buoyant microbubbles to capture and isolate virtually any target from a biological or chemical sample. The shortcomings of current methods—including volume limitations, low throughput, cumbersome workflows, and costly processes—are all solved by microbubbles. Akadeum’s flotation-based separation technology is faster, cheaper, and much simpler than status-quo methods. Moreover, microbubbles can be used with samples of any size—a feat that its predecessors can’t even come close to tackling.
10
MICHBIO | michbio.org
THE BEAUTY OF SIMPLICITY Akadeum’s goal of being able to process any sample, at any volume, anywhere is certainly within grasp. The company’s current products can be used to capture various types of cells, microbes, nucleic acids, proteins, and more. And—due to the fact that this self-separation is achieved by buoyancy—the technology does not require any specialized equipment and may be carried out in any size of container. By coating Akadeum’s microbubbles with molecules, they are able to seek out and attach to their desired targets. For example, antibody-coated microbubbles may be added to a blood sample to target specific cells, such as T-cells. The microbubbles then gently float the desired targets to the top of the sample, where they can easily be skimmed off.
AKADEUM’S FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 Amidst the ongoing pandemic, the speed and agility that Akadeum’s technology enables has become even more crucial. As such, the company is focusing its efforts to fight against COVID-19 on both the viral diagnostics and antibody detection fronts.
The Akadeum Advantage
EQUIPMENT FREE
SCALABLE IN VOLUME
SIMPLE & FAST
SCALABLE IN NUMBER
