Wednesday 22 June 2022

US-based life sciences company Bio-Techne Corp. (NASDAQ: TECH) has reached an agreement to acquire US-based single cell sorting and dispensing platforms provider Namocell, Inc, the company said.

Bio-Techne anticipates the acquisition to close in the first quarter of its fiscal 2023.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, Namocell is a provider of single cell sorting and dispensing platforms that are gentle to cells, and preserve cell viability and integrity.

Single cell selection and sorting is a critical technology in various workflows in both biotherapeutics and diagnostics, including cell and gene therapy development and commercialization, cell engineering, cell line development, single cell genomics, antibody discovery, synthetic biology, and rare cell isolation.

Historically, researchers relied on flow cytometry sorting methods like FACS (Flourescence-Activated Cell Sorting) or manual pipetting methods for single cell sorting and isolation.

Most flow cytometry sorting methods inflict potentially damaging stress on cells, are costly and difficult to operate, and require large numbers of cells. Similarly, manual pipetting methods are inefficient, unreliable and time consuming.

Namocell's proprietary single cell technology uniquely combines microfluidics, flow cytometry and liquid dispensing to achieve sorting and dispensing in a single step, while eliminating the risks associated with traditional FACS such as clogging and cross-contamination.

Namocell's instrument portfolio includes Pala, a 2-laser system with up to 11 fluorescent detection channels and Hana, a single-laser system with 2 fluorescent detection channels.

Namocell's current installed base is approaching 200 placements, including approximately 60 instruments sold in calendar 2021.

Fredrikson and Byron, P.A. is serving as Bio-Techne's legal counsel. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati is serving as legal counsel to Namocell.