Opentrons' subsidiary Neochromosome and Mekonos announce new partnership to advance cell engineering for personalized medicine

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mekonos, Inc., a biotech platform company building the future of cell therapies on a chip, has announced a new partnership with Neochromosome, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Opentrons Labworks focused on the creation of genome-scale cell engineering solutions. The new collaboration is focused on developing new capabilities using cutting-edge synthetic biology technologies to produce advanced cell and gene therapies for personalized medicine.

As part of the partnership, Mekonos and Neochromosome will test and optimize delivery of Neochromosome's de novo synthesized "Big-DNA" cargo directly into the nuclei of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) using Mekonos' proprietary Iris™ technology. Engineering of hiPSCs, which are stem cells that can be generated from adult tissue and have the potential to become any cell type, holds enormous promise for developing the next generation of cell-based therapies to treat and cure a wide variety of diseases, from diabetes to Parkinson's to cancer.

"The combination of Mekonos' unique, silicon chip-based delivery platform with Neochromosome's leading genome-scale engineering technologies will enable powerful new levels of precision and efficiency in the engineering of hiPSCs," said Jake Lesnik, VP of Business Development at Mekonos. "We are excited to partner with the world-class team at Neochromosome – leaders in synthetic chromosome design and synthesis – and to leverage Mekonos' Iris™ technology for ex-vivo delivery of their novel, large DNA payloads at unprecedented scale and efficiency."

"The design and large-scale synthesis of DNA for mammalian genome writing holds enormous potential for both the study of mammalian genomes and the creation of powerful new therapeutics. Efficient delivery and integration of longer DNA payloads, in particular into stem cells, will be a critical step to realize such advances", commented Leslie Mitchell, Co-Founder and CEO of Neochromosome. "This new partnership represents a great opportunity to advance genome-scale engineering of hiPSCs through the combined use of Neochromosome's proprietary designer Big-DNA technology with the Mekonos delivery platform. We are optimistic this collaboration will help unlock new opportunities for cell therapy development and ultimately benefit patients across a range of disease areas."

The research collaboration is launching January 2022 in the San Francisco Bay Area, with initial results expected mid-year.

About Mekonos, Inc.

Mekonos is an enabling technology company transforming synthetic biology and personalized medicine. The company's SoC merges innovations in MEMS, microfluidics, and chemistry for controlled and individualized molecular delivery in cells at scale. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, is backed by leading investors in both healthcare and technology, and was named a 2018 Fierce 15 Startup. For more information, please visit https://mekonos.com/technology.

About Neochromosome, Inc.

Neochromosome is a biotechnology company whose disruptive Big-DNA platform is changing the world of cell engineering. Rather than piecemeal editing of an existing genome, Neochromosome's focus is on the precision delivery of multi-gene pathways, chromosomes, and even whole genomes, designed and built de novo, for eukaryotic cells. Neochromosome, headquartered in New York City, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Opentrons Labworks and is funded by SoftBank and Khosla Ventures.  For more information, please visit https://neochromosome.com/#what-we-do.

SOURCE Mekonos