Month: March 2023

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Physical Sciences Inc (PSI), in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Lowell, has been awarded a program from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a novel biomanufacturing process analytical technology tool that enables in-line, continuous measurement of the metabolism of host cells in bioreactors for the large-scale manufacturing of therapeutic viral vectors.

Gene therapy uses genes to prevent and/or treat acquired disorders and inherited genetic diseases. Recently, the intensive investigation of human genes and related diseases has improved the capability of gene therapy as a promising future therapy that can significantly increase life expectancy for millions of patients suffering from incurable diseases. However, the clinical potential remains largely unleashed, mainly due to the limited biomanufacturing capacity of gene delivery products for clinical and commercial use. Manufacturing of gene therapeutic biologics involves harvesting viral vectors in mammalian cell cultures that are highly complex and difficult to control. The lack of understanding and control of the viral production processes has led to manufacturing challenges including low productivity, instability of cell lines, high levels of impurities, and difficult scalability with consistent product quality. Therefore, new biomanufacturing analytical technologies are critically needed to improve the understanding of the bioprocess dynamics and to support development of robust and efficient biomanufacturing processes.

PSI’s novel metabolic cytometry sensor probe measures the autofluorescence of intracellular metabolites to be used for real-time assessment of cellular-level redox metabolic state. An innovative spatially and temporally confined spectroscopy approach is used to efficiently differentiate fluorescence signals of intracellular metabolites from the nonspecific light background, achieving high specificity measurement of cellular physiology. Successful development of this technology will contribute to significant improvement in the understanding and control of bioprocesses for large-scale manufacturing of viral vector products for gene therapy.

For more information, contact:

Mr. William Kessler
Vice President, Applied Optics
kessler@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a standard fiber to photonic chip connector based on gray-scale 3D printing.

As progress in quantum information and computation leads to various ground-breaking technologies, there is a need for developing protocols to integrate systems to form quantum networks. The largest holdup for quantum networking is optical loss, which reduces quantum information fidelity and occurs at the component and system-level interconnects. Developing ultra-low loss interconnects is critical for realizing quantum networks in the near-term.

As more quantum technologies take advantage of photonic and electronic integrated circuits, techniques are required for efficiently extracting light off chip and into long-distance fibers that connect the network. PSI’s gray-scale lithography approach provides the best control of connector geometries, optical interfaces, and refractive indices of any technology and thus will allow the lowest optical losses and develop swappable design that are customized for different quantum platforms.

PSI’s mode-converter technology will enable ultra-low loss optical interconnects between integrated chips and current fiber-based networks, greatly increasing the capacity of near-term quantum networks without the bottleneck of optical loss limiting the network scale. This approach will reduce infrastructure requirements to expedite development of some of the first quantum networks. These devices will become key components for every node within a quantum network, which will enable advanced quantum computing, secure communication, and distributed quantum sensing. Additionally, low-loss interconnects could also have a major role in classical telecommunications as well, increasing system efficiency and bandwidth.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics
hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a program from the U.S. Department of Energy to design a transient-grating-based time-resolved circular dichroism module for background-free, wavelength-agnostic investigations of material chirality.

Time-resolved circular dichroism spectroscopy measures changes in chirality, a material property where change often indicates a structural distortion or spin-state transformation. These properties are particularly important in next-generation energy and communication technology, but experimental difficulty has thus far prevented the technique from gaining widespread use. The transient grating methodology developed by PSI provides an accessible platform for these experiments that is broadly adaptable to existing laser instrumentation, while being both more stable and having lower background noise than current laboratory-scale approaches.

PSI’s approach uses two, cross-polarized laser pulses to induce a transient grating in a sample that deflects a third probe pulse if the sample has a circular dichroism response at that wavelength. The lack of any electro-optical devices or bandwidth limiting optics in the transient grating approach allows for a wavelength-agnostic spectrometer aimed at making time-resolved circular dichroism an accessible diagnostic technique for next-generation material characterization.

The commercial application of the transient-grating, time-resolved circular dichroism module stems from the technique’s continued application in measuring the complicated spin-dynamics of advanced material systems. The module will be made versatile enough that continued development will result in a general platform for four-wave mixing techniques with diagnostic capabilities for these novel materials.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics
hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003