NIH Awards $1.5M SBIR Phase II Grant to Build PicoSep System to Analyze Nucleic Acid Sample Quality

Circulomics has been awarded a $1.5M SBIR Phase II grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to develop a single molecule platform for DNA/RNA sample quality analysis based on PicoSep technology.This Phase II grant will build upon previous Phase I work and drive the continued development of the PicoSep instrument, separation cartridges, and assay kits. The first products to be developed will be kits for RNA/DNA integrity analysis and high molecular weight DNA sizing.

As genomics tools become increasingly sophisticated, rising emphasis is being placed on nucleic acid sample quality. According to CEO Dr. Kelvin Liu, "We see great opportunity in developing new tools to not only extract high quality DNA/RNA but also to better characterize it before analysis. PicoSep offers an alternative to capillary electrophoresis that is fast, sensitive, and highly informative."

This award brings Circulomics' total funding to nearly $5.8M and further catalyzes the development of its Nanobind sample preparation, Ligo-miR microRNA assay, and PicoSep single molecule technologies into a comprehensive portfolio of tools to streamline genomics research and molecular diagnostics.

A press release has been issued to announce this award.

This news has been covered by GenomeWeb and Frontline Genomics.