Lightcast Publishes Seminal Scientific Paper in Lab on a Chip

Lightcast Discovery Ltd., a life science tools company developing a novel single-cell functional analysis platform, today announced its first peer-reviewed scientific publication outlining the technical details and applications for the company's proprietary technology platform. The paper, written by scientists from Lightcast in collaboration with Clare Bryant, PhD, professor at the University of Cambridge, was released online ahead of print publication in Lab on a Chip, a journal from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Lightcast is advancing single-cell functional analysis with a droplet-based platform that can load, select, process, and analyze thousands to hundreds of thousands of individual cells at the same time, then selectively recover hits for downstream applications. This novel technology enables the manipulation of addressable picoliter droplets with light in a massively parallel manner, enabling sequential assays that query individual cell function and cell-cell interactions. Lightcast's platform provides the flexibility to analyze a wide range of cell types and assays, as well as the precision to meticulously control and monitor the number, occupancy, location, and movement of each droplet. The approach will promote translational and basic research advancements and streamline workflows for drug discovery and development.

"This publication demonstrates the power and potential for Lightcast's technology to advance single-cell functional studies with unprecedented control, flexibility, and parallelization," said Lawrence Welch, PhD, Senior Scientist at Lightcast and lead author of the publication. "By overcoming the limitations faced by traditional microfluidics or droplet technologies and enabling real-time functional analysis, we aim to bring entirely new capabilities to scientists in drug discovery and life science research."

Lightcast recently expanded its Luminary Early Access Program, which enables royalty-free, pre-commercial technology access and is designed to showcase the technology's full utility in important drug development and translational research applications. To set up a platform demonstration or to learn more about the Luminary Early Access Program, visit www.lightcast.bio/luminary-program.

"This new publication in Lab on a Chip is an enormous validation of the technical performance and utility of our innovative platform," said Paul Loeffen, PhD, CEO of Lightcast. "Over the past year, we have secured $59 million in a Series B financing, opened an Innovation Center in the US, and expanded our successful Luminary early access program. Lightcast is now poised to build on these successes and drive a new era of massively parallel, single-cell functional experimentation at scale."

To read the full publication, "A programmable and automated optical electrowetting-on-dielectric (oEWOD) driven platform for massively parallel and sequential processing of single-cell assay operations," please download HERE.

About Lightcast

Lightcast aims to unleash new capabilities within the single-cell analysis field by developing a more accessible, scalable, and flexible platform for scientists in basic, translational, and applied research. These capabilities will empower new biological discoveries and accelerate the development of novel drugs, therapies, and biologics. Founded in 2019 and based in Cambridge, UK, Lightcast has invented a technology that uses rays of light to control picoliter-scale droplets for functional analysis of individual cells. For more information, visit www.lightcast.bio.