UILFORD, Conn.– Quantum-Si Incorporated (NASDAQ: QSI) (“Quantum-Si,” “QSI” or the “Company”), a life science tools company commercializing a unique protein sequencing platform, announced today that they have expanded their Platinum early access program to ten sites, with participation from leading academic centers and key industry partners. The early access program introduces the Platinum single molecule sequencing system to key opinion leaders across the globe, for both expansion and development of applications and workflows.
“The Company is experiencing tremendous momentum and demand for participation in our early access program to analyze previously unapproachable levels of biological understanding of the proteome,” said John Stark, Chief Executive Officer of Quantum-Si. “Currently, the scientific and drug development community can only confirm ~20,000 proteoforms or 2% of the estimated 1 million protein structures or variants that may exist in a cell. Sequencing the proteome is poised to expand the overall market similar to how genomics empowered scientists to routinely sequence genes at the nucleic acid level. This is only the beginning for what will be enabled.”
QSI is accelerating the development of applications to address critical unmet needs across key market segments including fundamental biological discovery and research, clinical and therapeutic biomarker development, and broadening single molecule sequencing for multi-omic approaches. With Platinum’s scaled protein analysis of single molecules at amino acid level resolution, early access participants will explore:
- Multi-omic assay development to expand biological understanding. “Within a month of receiving the instrument, we were able to reproduce and validate protein sequencing data previously generated at Quantum-Si,” said Dr. Andrew Griffiths, Professor at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) in Paris. “We are now using the instrument to run our own samples to develop single molecule screening for directed evolution, parallelized single molecule counting applications and single-cell multi-omics.”
“Advancements in life science technologies are required to enable a greater understanding of molecular changes that cause disease, enabling greater resolution of cell and fundamental protein structure,” said Dr. Andrew Adey, Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University. “My team is enthusiastic about the potential to sequence proteins to provide fundamental understanding in key areas such as unlocking the complexity of neurologic function and disease.”
- Unlocking measurement of biomarkers that are challenging for standard platforms to scale. “Tools capable of characterizing amino acid modifications like phosphorylation, the essential mechanism by which cells ‘signal’ information in cancer and virtually every other disease, are essential for development of new biomarkers that expand routine clinical laboratory testing,” said Dr. Timothy Triche, Co-Director for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) Center for Personalized Medicine. “A key research focus of our team is to understand how the Platinum platform can be used to fundamentally enhance patient monitoring for early detection and reoccurrence.”
- Advanced tools to better understand complex issues of the immune system. “Millions of patients are experiencing the effects of long hauler symptoms or immunocompromised states that are challenging to diagnose at early stages,” said Dr. Bruce Patterson, Chief Executive Officer at inCellDX. “At our company and associated clinics, we’re observing viral protein signatures in these patient samples in which nucleic acid material is absent, confirmed by whole genome sequencing of viral load. Right now, we’re exploring using Platinum’s single molecule sensitivity to detect these low abundant protein signatures for early detection of long hauler effects.”
“Quantum-Si is developing simple end-to-end solutions and workflows that expand access to single molecule protein sequencing for broad use across both basic and clinical research markets,” said Matt Dyer, Chief Business Officer of Quantum-Si. “Our early access program is an important milestone towards scaled commercialization. We are excited to work closely with key thought leaders who share and expand our vision to advance the community’s understanding of the proteome and how we ultimately identify and treat disease.”
