Curio Bioscience Launches Industry’s First Unbiased, High-Resolution, Spatial Transcriptomics Solution

Curio’s technology expands access to spatial gene expression in tissue samples and addresses trade-offs between plex and resolution

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#agbt23–Curio Bioscience today announced it has commenced commercial operations with the launch of Curio Seeker, the world’s first high-resolution, whole-transcriptome spatial mapping kit. Leveraging the Slide-seq technique that its academic co-founders created at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Curio Seeker enables any laboratory to generate whole-transcriptome spatial data from tissue samples in an easy-to-use workflow.

“We have known for years that the spatial mapping of tissue has the potential to accelerate novel discoveries and advance our understanding of human biology,” said Steve Fodor, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Curio Bioscience. “Curio Seeker is an innovative, new tool that enables life science researchers to access high-resolution transcriptomics information in their organism of choice. We believe that Curio Seeker will take discovery beyond what is possible with current single-cell sequencing approaches and establish a new industry standard for spatial transcriptomics.”

Curio’s academic co-founders are Evan Macosko, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Institute Member at the Broad Institute, Fei Chen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Core Institute Member at the Broad, and Samuel Rodriques, Ph.D., Group Leader at The Francis Crick Institute.

“Until now, researchers considering spatial genomics tools have had to choose between unbiased methods that provide high transcriptomic coverage at the cost of resolution, or targeted methods that provide high resolution data across only a subset of targets,” said Macosko. “The novel and validated technique on which Curio Seeker is based allows researchers to use existing sequencing instrumentation to generate unbiased, high-resolution spatial transcriptomics data across many tissue types and species, unlocking new avenues for basic scientific discovery.”

Without the need for traditional microscopy-based approaches, Curio Seeker provides the ability to generate tissue images by molecularly profiling cells in their spatial location using standard next generation sequencers. Researchers can capture and map where RNA molecules are in the tissue to better understand the relationship between cells and their native environment. Curio Seeker provides a baseline for understanding developmental biology, assessing the immunological response to cancer, and discovering molecular signatures that predict disease progression or treatment response among other studies.

“The ability to do whole-transcriptome, spatial mapping of tissue at industry-leading resolution with a simple, plug-and-play workflow is revolutionary in the biological research field,” said Christina Fan, Ph.D., Co-founder and CTO at Curio. “No other technique on the market today provides the depth and breadth of information on cellular neighborhoods that Curio Seeker can for biological research.”

Curio Seeker is the first in a suite of products that the company is developing that enable high-resolution discovery using existing sequencing instrumentation. With industry-leading 1-2 cell average resolution that minimizes gaps, the kit enables scientists to get the most transcriptomic data from their samples. The solution is compatible with all Illumina sequencers, allowing for plug-and-play use of the kit in existing sequencing workflows with no additional equipment needed.

“Curio Seeker has furthered our understanding of the microenvironment and spatial relationships between cells in various tissues of interest. We have already applied this new tool to a wide range of organisms to learn how diverse cell populations interact, simplifying complex challenges. Furthermore, the Curio Seeker kit was both easy to implement and affordable,” said Dr. Angela Pisco, Assistant Director Bioinformatics at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

About Curio Bioscience

Curio Bioscience is a company advancing a new generation of high-precision tools for the life sciences industry. The company has developed innovative spatial biology capabilities to map the whole transcriptome at high resolution using existing sequencing workflows and instrumentation. Curio’s founding team has a strong track record of bringing genomic solutions to market. Based in Palo Alto, California, Curio Bioscience is a privately held company. For more information, go to www.curiobioscience.com.

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