Project description
Automation and the cloud support high-throughput single-molecule imaging
The ability to visualise biological samples at the single-molecule scale has revolutionised our understanding and pushed the frontiers of research and development. The French SME Abbelight is a leader in the light microscopy field and is the producer of the 2D and 3D SAFe nanoscopes for single-molecule imaging. The team has partnered with Olympus, a global leader in the manufacture of optical and precision technology for consumers, medicine and research, to distribute a high-throughput nanoscopy system for expanded applications. The EU-funded HT-SAFe project is enabling the team to significantly enhance the existing manual, low-throughput technology with the addition of automated sample preparation and cloud-based data storage, analysis and management, relying on neural network and deep learning strategies. The project will help Abbelight take a leading position in the emerging field of high-throughput nanoscopy.
Objective
Abbelight is a French company created in 2016 as a result of 20 years of academic research in microscopy for biology.
The company won the H2020 SMEi1 in 2017, developed, protected and launched its high performing SAFe nanoscope solution (revenue of €1.3 million between July 2017 and June 2019), set-up a strong team of 15 full-time employees and secured €2.66 million in public funds and private equities.
Today, Abbelight is planning to go further and open a new market of promising and demanding high-throughput and high-content nanoscopy together with Olympus its new distributor partner. HT-nanoscopy will become an invaluable asset in translational medicine resulting in even better diagnostic tools and new tailor-made treatments, increasing 10-fold nanoscopy client base.
However, HT-nanoscopy requires an imaging output increase of 1000 times the current standard. This represents a massive technological challenge, but Abbelight is ready to answer. The key pain points to which Abbelight will respond are current lack of automation of nanoscopy workflow and lack of solution for storage, mining and analysis of huge quantity of data that will be generated by HT-nanoscopy.
The Accelerator project will allow Abbelight to transform the existing manual and low-throughput SAFe nanoscopy solution to the industrial HT-SAFe: fully automated, high-throughput turnkey platform. The platform will include automated sample preparation and imaging instruments, and the new SaaS cloud for data storage, mining and analysis. This ambitious development will be done using cutting-edge automation and microfluidic technologies, as well as neural network and deep learning strategies.
The Accelerator project will accelerate Abbelight’s go-to-market through faster development, earlier pre-series and larger market reach in Europe. With the objective to reach over 70 customers and a turnover of 30 M€ in 2023 Abbelight will become the leader in the new emerging HT-nanoscopy market.
Fields of science
- social sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomation
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learningdeep learning
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
94230 Cachan
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.