Cyntellect, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company based in San Diego, California, announced that the company has been issued US Patent #7,092,557. The newly issued claims further expand the use of Cyntellect's patented LEAP technology to include iterative closed-loop laser processing of cells to ensure a defined level of purity or transfection. The company now has eight issued US patents covering its core technology.

"The Company's approach to cell processing is unique, allowing various forms of processing to occur on stationary cells within well plates," explained Fred Koller, Ph D, Cyntellect's president and chief technical officer. "Because the cells are not moving, they can be re-imaged for quality control purposes between processing steps and instantaneously re-processed to meet pre-defined purity and/or transfection criteria. This automated, iterative closed-loop processing of cells is completely novel, and enables our customers to address a broad and diverse set of experimental opportunities while also ensuring they can achieve maximal cell purity, yield and molecule delivery."

LEAP is an automated instrument that combines high-speed optical imaging of cells, real-time image analysis and high-speed laser manipulation of individual live cells presented in microplate formats. Using LEAP, researchers can rapidly and selectively laser-irradiate specific cells achieving >99.9 per cent purity. The in situ processing nature means researchers can exploit rare cell populations or cells that are typically refractory to currently available purification technologies (e.g. primary cells, patient cells or delicate cell lines) as well as more robust commonly used cell types. LEAP-based laser manipulation of cells has also been demonstrated to effectively permeabilize cells transiently without inducing cellular toxicity. This approach, called LaserFect, enables introduction of a wide variety of biomolecules including ions, siRNAs, proteins and quantum dots, many of which cannot be transfected using current technologies.