DROPLETFACTORY: FAST, ACCESSIBLE DROPLET-ASSISTED DESIGN OF NOVEL CELL FACTORIES

Objetivo

Biomanufacturing - the backbone of Europe’s sustainable bioeconomy - is slowed by the long, resource-intensive process of cell factory design. Developing microbial strains for food additives, biomedicines, enzymes or bio-based materials takes months, as most biolabs still rely on manual or robotic plate assays with limited throughput, high reagent use and labour cost. Droplet microfluidics can accelerate these workflows by compartmentalising reactions into millions of pico- to nanolitre droplets for massively parallel screening. However, existing droplet-assisted systems are expensive (>€250k), energy-intensive, and difficult to customise, limiting adoption by SMEs, startups and academic labs.

DROPLETFACTORY by CogniFlow OÜ addresses these barriers with a modular, flexible and transparent droplet-assisted cell factory design automation platform. It delivers 1000x higher throughput and up to 10x lower energy use than plate assays, while being 2–5x more affordable than commercial droplet platforms. The system encapsulates, incubates, reads and sorts cell variants at up to 1000 Hz, with each droplet acting as a miniature bioreactor. Built on the CogniFlow® hardware-software platform, it integrates pumps, optical readout with edge-AI, microfluidic chip interfaces and intelligent control into a compact suitcase-size device tailored for SME labs.

The project will integrate the current functional prototype into a unified system, add usability and performance optimisations to meet end-user targets, and validate the platform through customer-site testing. In parallel, it will validate the business model, strengthen IP protection, complete the team and increase investment readiness to enable market entry and scaling. By shortening the strain-engineering cycle and lowering adoption barriers, DROPLETFACTORY will support Europe’s shift toward sustainable, energy-efficient and digitally enabled biomanufacturing.