1. Reprinted with permission from DDNews n May 2014, Volume 10, Issue 5
Old River Publications, LLC n 19035 Old Detroit Road n Rocky River, OH 44116
www.DDN-News.com n Tel: (440) 331-6600 n Fax: (440) 331-7563
A meeting of the minds
for sample management
BY KELSEY KAUSTINEN
CHELMSFORD, Mass.—Brooks Automation Inc. and Lark-
spur, Calif.-based BioCision LLC have joined forces to
speed the development of technologies that can improve
temperature control and standardization for biomaterials
handling for industries such as preclinical and clinical
research and product development. This is the first time
the two companies have worked together.
BioCisionbringsitsexpertiseindevelopingmobiletem-
perature management products and technologies to the
table, while Brooks Automation specializes in advanced
research and production experience in automated sys-
tems for sample storage. Both companies’ research and
product design and engineering teams will draw on their
respective experience to develop new, highly adaptable
and scalable products to meet existing sample handling
and biobanking needs, both ones that can stand alone
and others than are compatible with existing systems. In
conjunction with this agreement, Brooks Automation has
also made a $4 million equity investment in BioCision.
“We are very excited about our investment and joint
collaboration with BioCision, which will link our current
activities and strategy in the life-sciences market segment
with their innovative products and technology,” Dr. Steve
Schwartz, CEO of Brooks Automation, commented in a
statement. “BioCision’s focus on addressing major unmet
needs in research and cold chain management has led
them to impressive year-over-year revenue growth. Our
investment in BioCision launches a relationship with joint
product opportunities that have a great potential to be
integrated with our existing technology platforms.”
“On a global scale, industries and research centers that
use biomaterials have demanded a solution that bridges
the gap between outstanding storage capabilities and
highly precise and automated systems for sample han-
dling. By uniting the proven capabilities of BioCision and
Brooks Automation, this collaboration supports develop-
ment of a new generation of advanced solutions that will
set entirely new performance benchmarks in temperature
control and sample standardization,” Dr. Rolf Ehrhardt,
CEO of BioCision, said in a press release.
There is a phenomenon in the industry, Ehrhardt says,
in that while biobanks are heavily regulated and auto-
mated and quality controlled, “no one really knows how
these samples get there, under what condition, under
what temperature and, in addition, no one knows how
they leave.” As such, there is a need for better sample man-
agement and standardization in the industry today. And
that’s where BioCision believes they can help, Ehrhardt
explains, because they can offer mobile temperature prod-
ucts that can bridge that gap.
Ehrhardt says that the areas of cell therapy and stem
cell therapy are key areas in which sample management
is of significant import.
“We believe cell therapy and stem cell therapy are great
areas to focus on because this is the first time, probably,
where the quality of the drug product is extremely impor-
tant, and standardization, handling and the quality of the
product is starting to be very important,” he explains. “The
cell therapy drugs are extremely sensitive to temperature
fluctuations and transport, so here you really have to make
sure that they are being properly stored, transported and
processed, otherwise you get a different drug product
every time … like no time before, the handling of the
drug in cell therapy is very important.”
Among BioCision’s offerings are the CoolCell cell
freezing devices, which the company says have become
an industry standard for cell cryopreservation in clini-
cal and research applications. On April 21, the company
announced that TxCell, which focuses on the develop-
ment of personalized cell-based immunotherapies for the
treatment of severe chronic inflammatory diseases, will
be using several of BioCision’s products in a Phase 2b
cell therapy clinical trial, including the CoolCell freezing
device and CoolBox ice-free cooling workstations. Brooks
Automation announced Jan. 21 the next generation of
its automated systems for sample and biological storage,
which feature components such as storage for dry pow-
der, small-molecule and DNA samples, multimillion-tube
storage capacities and simple integration with IT/library
information management systems.
EDITCONECT: E05141404