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Akadeum Launches T Cell Activation and Expansion Using Positive Selection and Expands Leukopak Cell Isolation Product Lines at ASGCT 26th Annual Meeting

Published on May 16, 2023

The company that pioneered microbubbles for cell isolation is launching a first-of-its-kind product that uses microbubbles to activate T Cells and releasing the first GMP-grade microbubble product for T cell isolation.

Ann Arbor, MI, May 16, 2023 – Akadeum Life Sciences, a global leader in buoyancy-based cell separation and activation technology, is announcing the launch of a new series of products for cell therapy research and development—enabling direct leukopak human immune cell isolation and T-cell activation/expansion kits at the American Society of Gene + Cell Therapy’s 26th Annual Meeting from May 16-20, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. The new products expand Akadeum’s lineup of Buoyancy-Activated Cell Sorting (BACS™) Microbubble buoyancy-based cell isolation kits, enabling the direct isolation of T cells (leveraging GMP-grade kit reagents) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from leukapheresis material without the need for lysis or density gradient centrifugation.

This innovative advancement will give immunotherapy researchers the ability to produce high-yield, purified PBMCs and T cells in just one hour while remaining gentle on fragile immune cells. 

“The leukopak compatible products added to the BACS™ Microbubble platform emphasizes our commitment to continually grow our offerings into the areas where researchers—and the patients they serve—need them most,” says Brandon McNaughton, PhD, CEO of Akadeum. “Our hope is that by replacing pre-processing with a more gentle, efficient GMP-grade product, researchers will save time while maintaining a foundation of reliable and reproducible results.”

Leukopaks—blood bags made of primarily white blood cells derived from leukapheresis—play a vital role in immune cell research as the clinical standard collection and storage method of PBMCs, including T cells. However, they also contain undesirable granulocytes and hematocrit, which are traditionally labor-intensive and difficult to remove without damaging the PBMCs widely used in immunotherapy and toxicology research. Akadeum’s new products solves these issues for researchers.

Akadeum’s product launch includes three new kits:

  1. Human T Cell Activation & Expansion Positive Selection Kit
  2. Microbubble Leukopak Human T Cell Isolation Kit (GMP Grade) 
  3. Microbubble Leukopak Human PBMC Isolation Kit

All three kits use Akadeum’s signature BACS™ Microbubble technology to drive powerful large-scale cell isolation, activation, and expansion—all while being gentle on cells. The gentleness produces cells that are healthier and more amenable to downstream workflows.

The bulk PBMC and GMP-grade T cell isolation kits separate highly pure populations of untouched immune cells via a negative selection process that uses antibodies to recognize unwanted target cells and remove them from the sample. The process will help researchers save time and resources with a simple reagent kit that takes less than an hour to run and does not require dedicated equipment, magnets, or columns. 

Isolated cells are suitable for a wide variety of downstream applications. The Human T Cell Activation & Expansion Kit does not compromise T cell expansion kinetics or activation strength while producing T cell populations with significantly less expression of exhaustion markers compared to competitors’ products. 

For more information, visit https://www.akadeum.com/products/.

About Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc.

Akadeum Life Sciences was formed to solve long standing sample preparation problems in research, diagnostics, and cell therapy markets with a novel 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 would not be possible. 

More than a solution to a single problem, this elegantly simple platform technology 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 also establishing industry partnerships. Akadeum’s kits are for research use only.

Inquiries into Akadeum’s products, technology, or partnership opportunities can be made at info@akadeum.com.

Media Contact

Ken Gordon
Vice President, Commercial
Akadeum Life Sciences
ken@akadeum.com
(704) 467-9608

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