Akadeum Life Sciences Unveils Microbubble Cell Separation Instrument

Akadeum Life Sciences has previewed its Alerion cell separation system, an instrument that provides a closed system for separating T cells from a leukopak using the company’s Buoyancy Activated Cell Sorting (BACS) microbubble technology. The instrument promises to speed up the cell separation process, increase cell recovery, automate several manual steps, improve sample processing robustness, decrease user error incidence, and reduce cell exhaustion. 
 
Currently, revolutionary treatments like CAR T cell therapy can cost more than $500,000, partly because current technology is difficult to scale up in manufacturing processes. With few options in the market, customers are forced to settle for mediocre performance from dated technology. Akadeum’s microbubble technology addresses these challenges and offers a shift in the field of cell separation, activation, and expansion, promising higher performance, and lower prohibitive costs to improve accessibility. The new Alerion system brings even more robust cell separation workflows compared to legacy magnetic-activated cell separation (MACS) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) instruments. Akadeum’s new instrument enables unmatched scalability and productivity for T cell separation by processing more healthy cells per isolation and more isolations during a manufacturing shift, according to the company.

“This instrument marks an important step in bringing the performance advantages of our products into clinical manufacturing workflows. The instrument provides gentle separation, fast protocols, flexible workflows and does so in a closed system,” Akadeum Life Sciences Founder/CEO Brandon McNaughton said. 
 
Akadeum’s instrument utilizes a two-chamber consumable. In the bottom chamber, the leukopak material is mixed with an antibody cocktail and microbubble solution. Using cell-specific binding properties, the microbubbles adhere to a predetermined cell population. Next, a channel between the two chambers is opened, allowing the naturally buoyant microbubbles to float the T cells to the top chamber, leaving the unwanted cells behind in the lower chamber. This automated process can be applied to Akadeum’s negative or positive selection kits and takes less than 60 minutes to complete. 
 
“For the first time, customers will have a choice of the cell separation technology they use. With the many features of our microbubbles, we believe many will now choose the Akadeum solution. Additionally, with the Alerion achieving cell recovery rates of 90% and above, they will experience more healthy cells for use in cell and gene therapy, as compared to other technologies,” Akadeum R&D Vice PresidentCasey Wegner stated. “Finally, microbubble technology is highly scalable and eco-friendly as opposed to the contamination associated with magnets. We’re thrilled with the work that our team has done to bring this instrument to researchers and developers.” 
 
Akadeum is currently signing up customers interested in being a Beta testing site, in advance of a full product launch. 

Akadeum Life Sciences was formed to solve long-standing sample preparation problems in research, diagnostics, and cell therapy markets with a flotation-based target isolation platform technology. Without the critical step of separation (isolating biological targets like DNA, proteins, or cells from biological samples), many diagnostics and therapies are not possible. More than a solution to a single problem, this simple platform is disrupting the separation market—from nucleic acid extraction to cell isolation. Akadeum was the first to commercialize BACS (buoyancy activated cell sorting) microbubble kits for cell isolation applications. In parallel, Akadeum is actively establishing industry partnerships and collaborations. Akadeum’s kits are available for research only and as GMP-grade configurations.