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Samplix ApS supports the life sciences and medical research communities with microfluidics-based solutions designed to deliver high-resolution insights into cells and genomes. Samplix products encapsulate the building blocks of life — living mammalian and microbial cells, long fragments of DNA, or organelles — for a range of downstream purposes, such as functional analyses of single mammalian cells, assessments of single-cell enzyme activity, optimization of protein generation, and verification of gene edits via long- or short-read sequencing.
As a leading developer of microfluidics solutions, Samplix stands ready to help academic, corporate and government researchers reach their goals in areas as diverse as engineered cell therapy, molecular engineering, and cell biology.
How do you get error- and bias-free identification of genomic variants? This was the question that Dr. Marie Just Mikkelsen and Dr. Thomas Kvist wanted to answer in 2012, when they were working on rare genomic variants. At the time, no existing technology could address that important question. Motivated by the challenge, the two scientists set out to develop a method that reveals any genomic variation.
PCR and unintended interactions between DNA molecules during sample handling are often the root of bias and errors in genomic analyses. Marie and Thomas built a team focused on creating a PCR amplification-free workflow with single molecules encapsulated in droplets.
In 2019, after 6 years of product development and thorough testing, the fully developed microfluidics system for droplet-based, PCR-free enrichment of genomic regions was launched under the name Xdrop®.
Since then, Xdrop technology has proven itself in a broad range of applications with human, other animal, plant, and microbial genomes. It also supports the investigation of cell reactions, including enzyme activity and protein synthesis.
With the success of the microfluidics system, Samplix has grown considerably, supporting customers worldwide with their genomics and molecular biology research.
CEO
Lars Kongsbak provides expertise in building startups, including strategy drafting and establish competent leadership. He has listed two life science companies and is or has been engaged with BlueBee, ViroGates, Exiqon, Novozymes and Novo Nordisk.
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CTO and co-founder
Marie Just Mikkelsen provides expertise in product development, which for Samplix includes instruments, microfluidics technology, molecular biology reagents, and bioinformatics. She has been engaged with Biogasol and Estibio.
CCO
Trine Overgaard Østerbye provides expertise in leading commercial operations in life sciences startup companies, including companies working within the areas of immunology other cell functionality space. She has been engaged with BioPorto Diagnostics, Svar Life Sciences, and Kementec Solutions.
VP Intellectual Property Rights
Søren Echwald Morgenthaler provides expertise in patent strategy, freedom to operate analysis and business strategy. He has listed one life sciences company and is or has been engaged with Anapa Biotech, Exiqon and Novo Nordisk.
VP Application & Market Development
Peter Mouritzen provides expertise in documenting the many applications of the Xdrop technology and builds relationships with key opinion leaders across the globe. He has listed one life science company and has been engaged with QIAGEN and Exiqon.
See the latest news about product releases, webinars and events, partnerships and more.
May 23, 2023 – From May 31 to June 2, Samplix experts will join the 2nd Cell Therapy Potency Assay Summit in Boston. Dr. Peter Mouritzen and Trine Overgaard Østerbye will be on hand to explain how Xdrop products, which produce and sort double-emulsion droplets containing cells, can give a true single-cell view of cell-killing assays, overcoming the limitations of bulk assays or assays in single-emulsion droplets.
The Cell Therapy Potency Assay Summit will gather over 100 experts working towards better potency assays. it's a crucial meeting in the cell therapy research calendar, and Samplix is proud to sponsor the event.
May 10, 2023 – Samplix is attending the world’s largest gathering of protein engineering and biotherapeutics experts: the 19th Annual PEGS Boston Conference and Expo.
Our co-founder and CTO, Dr. Marie Just Mikkelsen, is speaking on how double-emulsion droplet-based assays reveal subpopulations of immune cells with high cytokine secretion. She'll also demonstrate how to use this type of microfluidics droplet technology to quantify the fraction of killer cells with the capacity to kill a co-encapsulated target cancer cell using droplet-based approaches.Dr. Mikkelsen is speaking at 9:30 a.m. on May 15 in the "New Frontiers in Immunotherapy" part of the 8th Annual Improving Immunotherapy Efficacy and Safety conference, which is part of PEGS Boston.
Our three experts will be at Booth 1018 for the whole conference, so be sure to visit them and hear more about Xdrop and Xdrop Sort.
May 4, 2023 – We're cycling to work! Samplix is taking part in the Danish initiative "Vi Cykler til Arbejde", which runs through the month of May.
Over 50,000 people are taking part from all over the country, from private and public sector companies. Most companies taking part have teams of up to 14 people, who compete to see which does best. This year, Samplix has two teams competing to see who puts in the most kilometres cycling rather than driving or taking public transport.
Samplix is committed to supporting employees who cycle to work not just this month but whenever they want to. We have a full bike repair station, showers, and a bike shed to ensure that anyone cycling to work can feel comfortable for the rest of the day.
April 19, 2023 – Samplix is attending the 3rd International Microbial Food and Feed Ingredients (MiFFI) at the University of Copenhagen's Frederiksberg Campus this week. This important event draws researchers and companies from all over the world to discuss the latest developments in this sector.
At the second edition of this event in 2021, Samplix garnered significant attention around the benefits of single-cell resolution for screening.
This year, Samplix is presenting data on high-throughput screening of yeast from a collaboration with DTU Biosustain and hosting an industry symposium on high-throughput screening in droplets. The symposium is on Friday morning and has contributions from Dr. Volkan Besirlioglu of the Schwaneberg Group, RWTH Aachen University, and Dr. Tatyana Eleanor Saleski of DTU Biosustain and The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainibility.
March 30, 2023 – Following a highly competitive selection process, the European Innovation Council has chosen Samplix to receive a €2.5 million grant, along with up to €7.5 million in equity investment, as part of its latest round of deep tech start-up investment funding.
The EIC Accelerator program is Europe’s flagship initiative to boost European innovation, focused on identifying and supporting the development and scaleup of companies with breakthrough technologies and game-changing innovations.
On March 29, the EIC published that it has committed to aiding Samplix in the development of its microfluidics technology for functional characterization of single cells, which is crucial for revealing the heterogeneity of immune cells fighting cancer, among other key applications.
“We are extremely proud to receive this support from the EIC, which will allow Samplix to develop even more advanced products, and dramatically broaden our market scope,” said Lars Kongsbak, CEO of Samplix. “Samplix is at the point where we are ready to expand internationally, initially with an office in Silicon Valley to be closer to our customers and to exploit several partnership opportunities in that area.”
The EIC commitment includes the mentioned equity investment of €7.5 million, to be matched by venture or strategic investors. Thus, once completed, this will bring the total funding and grant support to €17.5 million. In addition, Samplix has this month concluded an investment round with a consortium of its current investors, amounting to €5.0 million.
The EIC noted that “the companies were selected in a highly competitive process, in which 159 companies were interviewed by juries of experienced investors and entrepreneurs, out of a total of 476 applications. The 32 selected companies will together receive close to €196 million in funding in a combination of grants and equity investments.”
February 1, 2023 – Samplix representatives are attending the following conferences and events in 2023. Watch this space for more information on our booth, talks, and other plans.
More conferences will be added to our calendar soon!
October 28, 2022 – There are still opportunities to connect with Samplix representatives in November. We're at the following conferences.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
June 20, 2022 – When you want to co-encapsulate two cell types in double-emulsion droplets — for example, natural killer cells and their targets — we have an elegantly simple accessory to go with our Xdrop DE50 Cartridge.
The well insert ensures that the two cell types do not interact until they've been co-encapsulated within double-emulsion droplets, where their interactions can be observed with single-cell resolution.
March 23, 2022 – Achieve single-cell resolution for functional assays of mammalian cells with the newly launched Xdrop DE50 Cartridge. It is designed for encapsulating single living mammalian cells in highly stable double-emulsion droplets.
This new microfluidics solution has enormous potential for mammalian cell work. It opens up the exciting possibility to transform bulk mammalian cell assays into single-cell assays focused on the potency of engineered cells. What's more, the desired cells can be retrieved for further expansion. We've already performed functional assays on encapsulated cells, such as cytokine secretion and cell killing assays, to prove the utility of this new microfluidics-based approach.
March 16, 2022 – Samplix representatives are attending the following conferences and events in 2022. Watch this space for more information on our booth, talks, and other plans.
March 8, 2022 – The theme for International Women's Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias: whether deliberate or unconscious, the bias against women at a sociopolitical level makes the path to success harder. The organizers of the day are calling on people the world over to try to make a difference by caling out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping whenever we see it.
Even small companies like Samplix can do something to make a difference and #BreakTheBias. It's vital to take gender bias seriously, and we've tried to do that.
At every level of the company, including senior management, there are women whose ideas help shape strategy and tactics. We all strive to listen to each other's concepts and concerns. Our managers work to empower the brilliant scientists, technicians, application specialists, salespeople, and marketers reporting to them. We interview broadly when advertising new positions and if the demographics of the applicants are limited, we try to ask why. And crucially, we actively try to hire people with different viewpoints so the managers can continuously be challenged on their own ideas.
No organization or individual is perfect in this vital area of equality and inclusion. But it's essential that we all try to create workplaces where everyone thrives without bias.
January 25, 2022 – We are delighted to announce the launch of our new instrument, Xdrop Sort and its microfluidics cartridge, Xdrop DE20 Sort: the next generation in gene and cell screening technology.
Uniquely, Xdrop Sort enables both the encapsulation and sorting of biological material, such as DNA and small cells, within stable double-emulsion droplets.
Together with appropriate sequencing or enzyme analytics technologies, Xdrop Sort is designed for a whole range of high-throughput gene and cell screening applications.
With Xdrop Sort, researchers can more easily reach the highest-resolution insights into the cells and genomes of humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms.
How can we better study genotype–phenotype correlation in genetic disorders and potentially enable more efficient diagnosis? Published in Frontiers in Genetics, this important paper details how to overcome the limitations of traditional methods for the analysis of repeat extensions using microfluidics droplet-based DNA preparation using Xdrop and sequencing using Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Illumina. The study was done by an inter-institutional team including researchers from the University of Verona, the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the University of Nevada at Reno, GENARTIS and IRCCS.
