COVENTRY – Cryogenic electron microscopy tool and instrument maker NanoSoft LLC was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation.
The $744,720 grant will be used for development of the company’s cryo-EM sample preparation robot, according to a news release. The robot is used by researchers to study biological molecules and the development of pharmaceuticals.
Cryo-EM is a technique that lets researchers better see and understand biological particles such as proteins and viruses, and construct 3D models of them. This helps them gain insight into their function, as well as how proteins work, how viruses affect proteins and how drugs interact with both.
“Cryo-EM … plays a significant part in fundamental health research and therapeutics development today,” said NanoSoft President Michael Godfrin. “For example, cryo-EM has been integral in understanding and developing therapeutics for COVID-19, as well as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and more.”
The grant, according to NanoSoft, will help the company work further on its patented sample preparation technology, which has been a challenge. Samples need to be frozen with exact parameters before imaging with cryo-EM microscopes, the company said in a statement. As current technologies are inefficient, millions of dollars in research time is wasted each year.
More reliable freezing, then, is key.
“Researchers will be able to freeze a handful of samples to build 3D models of their molecules, whereas today, they may need to freeze hundreds of samples, and some samples can’t be frozen appropriately at all,” said Michael Franzblau, NanoSoft chief technology officer.
Founded in 2016, NanoSoft’s main markets are universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and research institutes worldwide.
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion, according to its website.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
