SMi Systems have an ambitious goal.
Their mission?
To develop and commercialise a high-throughput, super-resolution device that could monitor interactions between therapeutics and their targets at single-molecule resolution.
In early studies, the Cambridge-based start-up was able to use pioneering technology in its research instrument to observe millions of molecular interactions at 1.6nm spatial resolution and 500 µs temporal resolution – data that had never previously been viewed with such high precision.
SMi’s early research studies offer a unique view of the characteristics of single biomolecules.
The findings suggest that its technology could have the potential to dramatically improve the speed and quality of disease diagnosis and drug discovery.
But despite their achievements, there were still challenges that needed addressing to demonstrate the strength of their approach.
SMi needed funding and resources to apply their technology and create a commercial instrument capable of informing industrial innovation.
Which is where Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) was able to help.
With the funding in place, SMi began working on its first commercial prototype for the new technology platform.
Unlike typical projects where the hardware is built before assays (tests) are developed, this project took a different approach.
We used our in-house capabilities, such as super-resolution imaging, to jump-start the development of the sample assays that would run on SMI’s instruments.
That gave SMi a head start while the prototype of their innovative device was being developed at the company’s US facility, using a unique configuration of components.
In July 2022, the prototype instrument was installed in MDC’s start-of-the-art laboratory facilities at Alderley Park, Cheshire.
This enabled our team of experts to test the performance of the device on a range of real-world diagnostic challenges.
Since then, we have strengthened our partnership with SMi and secured a Biomedical Catalyst (BMC) grant to evaluate the same prototype technology using a new approach to detecting cancer biomarkers.
This has the potential to transform their use for routine cancer screening and enable treatment efficacy to be monitored in real-time.
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
SMi Systems
It has been a pleasure working with MDC as their scientists are pleasant and have a broad range of talents.
Importantly for projects such as this, they openly and professionally exchange ideas with SMi’s scientific team and keep us abreast of their research developments. Not surprisingly, we are therefore looking forward to continuing and growing our close partnerships for the foreseeable future.
