Insider Brief
- Syncell raised $15 million in a Series A round, bringing total funding to $30 million, to accelerate global commercialization of its Microscoop platform, a groundbreaking tool for high-precision subcellular protein purification and spatial proteomics analysis.
- The Microscoop platform enables unbiased discovery of proteins in targeted regions, offering applications in oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, drug discovery, and more, while leveraging AI for advanced photolabeling and proteomic analysis.
- Syncell is expanding operations globally with new offices in the U.S. and Taiwan, strategic partnerships like one with Thermo Fisher Scientific, and plans to launch its Microscoop Mint line at Cell Bio 2024 in San Diego.
PRESS RELEASE — Syncell, a leader in next-generation subcellular protein purification and spatial proteomics analysis, today announced the close of a $15 million Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to $30 million. The investment will be used to expand and accelerate the global commercialization and commercial support for the company’s groundbreaking Microscoop platform. The round was led by Taiwania Capital, with participation from new and existing investors.
“We are so proud of Syncell’s growth and progress in 2024, with the imminent placement of instruments in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and the opening of new offices in the U.S. and Taiwan,” said Jung-Chi Liao, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Syncell. “The Series A investment will power the next phase of our growth, enabling us to build out a full commercial team and scale-up our operations to support the growing demand for our technology for spatial biologists and cell biologists, giving them the ability to accurately discover new protein components from targeted regions of interest.”
“We are pleased to work with Syncell and lead the Series A financing. The company has tremendous potential to transform spatial biology and proteomics research in an unbiased way, helping researchers gain high sensitivity and high specificity in their detection and analysis of proteins. Further, the company is leveraging AI to enable targeted photolabeling, offering the potential to leverage machine learning to build new models of biology,” said Jerome Shen, General Partner of Taiwania’s Bio Fund.
The pioneering Microscoop platform enables high-precision, unbiased, spatial proteomic discovery in subcellular tissues or cells, and has the ability to accurately discover new protein components from predetermined regions of interest. The technology also enables spatial protein purification for proteomic discovery, helping researchers identify cell subtypes and states, novel protein drug targets at disease-associated locations, biomarkers for disease, and mechanisms of biological pathways. The technology can power research focused on oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, and developmental biology, as well as a range of drug discovery applications. Syncell recently won a Biotech Breakthrough Award with the Microscoop platform named “Proteomics Solution of the Year” for 2024.
“Syncell’s spatial opto-proteomics platform enables us to uncover the proteins present in disease-associated aggregates within human postmortem brain tissue. This technology allows us to identify potential biomarkers for future diagnostics or therapeutic targets in an unbiased manner — achievements not possible with other spatial biology methods,” said Wilfried Rossoll, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic. “I see immense potential in subcellular protein profiling and spatial proteomics to discover proteins in locations inaccessible to other technologies.”
In addition to the company’s commercial growth, Syncell has begun building relationships with downstream technology partners, having recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Thermo Fisher Scientific covering its mass spectrometer instruments and workflows. Such relationships will support the company’s continued growth across industry segments.
Syncell will launch its Microscoop Mint product line and showcase the capabilities of Microscoop technology at Cell Bio 2024, the joint meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), being held December 14–18 in San Diego, Calif. Attendees can learn more about the technology at booth #639 and are encouraged to attend the tech talk, “Reinventing the Proteome: Microscopy-Guided Subcellular Protein Isolation with the Syncell Microscoop” with Dr. Liao and Dr. Cristiana Lungu (Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology, University of Stuttgart, Germany) on Monday, December 16, at 3:15 p.m. PT, in Room 22.
About Syncell
Syncell is a commercial stage life science company focused on subcellular protein purification and spatial proteomics analysis. The company was founded in 2020 leveraging technology developed by founder and CEO Jung-Chi Liao at Academia Sincia laboratory in Taiwan. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, and Watertown, Mass., Syncell has commercialized its Microscoop® technology, helping researchers achieve unbiased discovery in spatial proteomics at the disease site, with the ability to accurately discover new protein components from targeted regions of interest. To date, the company has raised $30 million from investors. To learn more, visit www.syncell.com or follow us on Linkedin.
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