Curia Adopts the Berkeley Lights Platform to Expand its Antibody Discovery Capabilities

Berkeley Lights, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLI), a leader in digital cell biology, and Curia, formerly AMRI, a leading contract research, development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced Curia’s adoption of The Beacon® Optofluidic system and workflows from Berkeley Lights to accelerate and expand its antibody-based drug discovery capabilities.

The Beacon system workflow at Curia leverages its proprietary Pentamice® platform, CHO-GSN℠ and TunaCHO℠ platforms, as well as the company’s antibody and cell-line engineering systems. The Pentamice® platform, CHO-GSN℠ and TunaCHO℠ platforms were developed at LakePharma, which Curia acquired in 2021. Learn more at curiaglobal.com/beacon.

With the addition of the Beacon system, Curia is able to provide a seamless and comprehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art technologies and experience for rapid progression of client antibody programs. Its solutions address the earliest stage of discovery, through maturation and development, to manufacture of drug substance and final drug products under GMP.

Speed counts in drug discovery, so the ability to conduct high-throughput, single-cell experiments is a game changer, enabling abundant and diverse leads,” said Christopher Conway, president, R&D, Curia. “Advanced technologies such as the Berkeley Lights platform are revolutionizing antibody discovery, tackling key pain points that confront innovators, such as long timelines and limited number of sequences. Our demonstrated ability to integrate technologies, process and scientific expertise ultimately enables us to accelerate the time to clinic and the advance of life-changing life science.” 

Curia scientists evaluated a variety of technologies and selected the Beacon system based on its proven capabilities and seamless integration in Curia’s end-to-end manufacturing value chain. With its abilities to deliver against a range of targets that fail with traditional technologies, combined with the proven immunological diversity inherent in its PentaMice® platform, Curia expects to deliver unique and diverse antibody sequences with comprehensive data analysis under timelines that are weeks in duration rather than months, and development candidates in six months or fewer.

We are excited to partner with Curia, a leading CDMO, in their adoption of the Berkeley Lights platform for antibody discovery. They can now accelerate the timeline in which critical therapeutics can make it to the clinic,” said Eric Hobbs, Ph.D., president of Antibody Therapeutics at Berkeley Lights. “Curia is showing their commitment to adopting cutting-edge technologies that more rapidly and effectively find the best cells, especially for hard-to-identify antibodies.”

About Curia
Curia, formerly AMRI, is a leading contract research, development and manufacturing organization providing products and services from R&D through commercial manufacturing to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical customers. Curia’s 3,700 employees at 29 locations across the U.S., Europe and Asia help its customers advance from curiosity to cure. Learn more at CuriaGlobal.com.

About Berkeley Lights
Berkeley Lights is a leading digital cell biology company focused on enabling and accelerating the rapid development and commercialization of biotherapeutics and other cell-based products for our customers. The Berkeley Lights Platform captures deep phenotypic, functional and genotypic information for thousands of single cells in parallel and can also deliver the live biology customers desire in the form of the best cells. Our platform is a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, comprising proprietary consumables, including our OptoSelect™ chips and reagent kits, advanced automation systems, and application software. We developed the Berkeley Lights Platform to provide the most advanced environment for rapid functional characterization of single cells at scale, the goal of which is to establish an industry standard for our customers throughout their cell-based product value chain.

Berkeley Lights’ Beacon® and Lightning™ systems and Culture Station™ instrument are FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Forward-Looking Statements
To the extent that statements contained in this press release are not descriptions of historical facts regarding Berkeley Lights or its products, they are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that relate to future events, and actual results and product performance could differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Berkeley Lights undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties relating to the Company’s growth and continual evolution see the statements in the "Risk Factors" sections, and elsewhere, in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.