Syncell Selects $50,000 Grant Opportunity Winners for Spatial Proteomics

Syncell, pioneering innovative tools to accelerate the world's understanding of proteomics, today announced Melissa Wren, Ph.D., & Dmytro Morderer, Ph.D., of the Dr. Wilfried Rossoll Lab at Mayo Clinic and Sofia Mensurado, Ph.D., of the Dr. Bruno Silva-Santos Lab at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Lisbon) as the winners of its Spatial Proteomics Grant Opportunity Award. Each receives early access to the Microscooptm system for in situ spatial protein biomarker discovery, a sample-to-result spatial proteomics service valued up to $50,000.

Drs. Wren and Morderer plan to use Microscoop to determine the composition of pathological TDP-43 aggregates. TDP-43 pathology is of central importance to many neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but the nature of the pathological inclusions is largely unexplored. Overcoming current technical limitations to determine the composition of these aggregates will advance understanding of their role in neurodegenerative disease mechanisms, critical knowledge for developing new biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for these diseases.

Dr. Mensurado's application focused on dissecting the molecular determinants of tumor cell recognition by ?? T-cells, a unique subgroup of T cells highly promising for cancer immunotherapy. Immunotherapy has changed the cancer treatment paradigm; however, immune checkpoint blocker (ICB) therapies are only a solution for a minority of patients, with success mainly limited to tumors with high mutational burdens, leaving an urgent need to manage several cancer types successfully. With Microscoop, Dr. Mensurado will look to identify the proteomes of immunological synapses formed between ?? T cells and tumor cells. Ultimately, she sees this knowledge as providing the basis for the design of better immunotherapeutic strategies that potentiate the recognition of tumor cells by ?? T cells.

Syncell's novel technology launched earlier this year and received a warm reception from researchers worldwide, exemplified by the overwhelming response to its first grant opportunity contest. Syncell is currently offering early access through its global rapid access service program, GRASP, and is planning to commercialize its Microscoop system in Q1 2023.

"Spatial biology has demonstrated its broad impact in life sciences. Syncell provides unique hypothesis-free spatial proteomics solutions, a technology leap enabling discovery of novel protein players for diverse biological problems," said Jung-Chi Liao Ph.D., Syncell's founder and chief executive officer. "It is exciting to see potential applications of Syncell's technology to address these two scientifically important problems in neuroscience and immunology. We expect our technology will benefit understanding of molecular mechanisms of diseases and discovery of novel drug target proteins for a broader disease spectrum."

Many organelles or cellular structures can't be easily isolated to study their proteome (i.e., stress granules, immune synapses, neuronal synapses, cilia, nucleolus) and how the proteins interact in their spatial context. The current bio-imaging-based spatial proteomics tools require using a preselected antibody panel to study the expression of these selected proteins. Syncell's tool enables the exploration of spatial proteomics in subcellular compartments without the limitation of a predefined antibody, allowing researchers to find previously unknown proteins expressed in these structures and study their roles in modulating biological functions.

Syncell will attend Neuroscience 2022 in San Diego, California, from November 12-16. Syncell invites members of the press to visit SfN booth #332 and learn how the company's novel spatial biology system, Microscoop can be applied to neuroscience research and generate comprehensive cellular or subcellular proteomics data from biospecimens. For more information, please visit www.syncell.com

About Syncell

Syncell is a biotech company developing bio tools for next-generation proteome research. Its pioneering Microscooptm technology enables spatial protein biomarker discovery, making de novo subcellular spatial proteomics feasible for the first time. The system can be applied to a broad range of biological problems to help understand molecular mechanisms, identify novel disease biomarkers, and explore novel drug targets. Learn more at www.syncell.com