Nicoya Lifesciences
Kitchener startup’s device helps researchers study disease and develop new medicines
Kitchener startup’s device helps researchers study disease and develop new medicines
KITCHENER — Ryan Denomme pursues cutting edge science from inside an old factory building where his grandmother used to work.
Denomme is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Nicoya Lifesciences, which recently launched the second version of its desktop device that measures interactions between some of the most important building blocks in the human body — proteins.
Proteins are one or two nanometres wide, and responsible for building and operating human organs. A nanometre is one billionth of a metre. Seeing how proteins interact with other proteins is critical to understanding how a disease progresses, and whether a new medication is effective.
Last month, Nicoya launched a new version of the sensitive and complex device for measuring those interactions. Earlier this year, it raised $2 million in a second round of financing.
The startup, founded in 2012, now employs 30 people who work out of second-floor offices inside the former Boehmer Box building at 283 Duke St. W.
“We have a pretty extensive road map of products and technologies that we are working on,” said Denomme. “We have been around for six years now, but it feels like we are just getting started — what we are going to be doing in the next couple of years is pretty exciting.”
Engineers from the fields of nanotechnology, spectrometry, software, hardware and electrical are needed to build the device, known as OpenSPR. The first version, launched in 2015, is used in 25 countries by scientists studying disease, developing new medicines and making new vaccines, said Denomme.
“We have had a number of our customers publish their breakthroughs in peer-reviewed scientific journals. That has been really, really exciting to see,” he said. “Literally, our mission as a company is to extend human life.”
In the past, scientists spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on instruments to see how proteins are interacting, or they paid to have their samples analyzed at a larger laboratory. The benchtop device developed by Nicoya sells for less.
Using Nicoya’s technology, scientists can quickly see on their laptop screens how molecules in a new medication are binding with the proteins in the human body that are spreading a disease.
“We feel like we are this behind-the-scenes group that is just helping the researchers to get to the next stage, get to that big discovery faster than they could have if we didn’t exist,” said Denomme.
A syringe containing a new medication is injected into the machine. A complex series of valves and pumps moves that sample over a glass slide where the startup’s nanotechnology is located. As light particles move through the slide, the hardware and software interpret the changes in the light to track how the proteins are interacting.
The nanotechnology on the glass slide is key to building an affordable, compact device for scientists.
“Everything from building the electronics, designing the circuits, writing the embedded software, writing the application software, all the surface chemistry, all the nanofabrication, we do everything in house, “said Denomme.
“All the mechanical design, the optical design, we do all that here,” he added.
Denomme said materials scientists are also using the technology to develop new polymers and coatings.