Laura A. Philips, PhD, MBA, is the Founder & CEO of Spheryx, Inc, a groundbreaking company that offers innovative solutions in the world of suspension analysis. We had the pleasure of talking to Laura about Spheryx’s flagship product xSight, and what it means for the world.
Can you explain what xSight does, and the markets that will benefit most from this new technology?
Products we use every day, from soaps that we rub on our bodies to foods that we eat to materials that help to make our electronics to life-saving medicines are made possible by sub-visible particles suspended in liquids. xSight enables us to characterise those particles down to the size of a hundredth of a human hair, by taking a hologram, a kind of sub visible image. There are a myriad of applications across many industries but our first two are markets in which Spheryx’s technology solves important unmet needs:
The first is Biologic Pharmaceuticals. Historically, drugs have been made out of small molecules, but the new generation of drugs is made of proteins, manufactured inside individual cells. Scientists in pharmaceutical companies design these cells to make specific proteins that do a particular job in the human body to cure particular diseases. Think of it like a lock and key design where the protein, the key, binds to a specific site in the human body, the lock, where it can do its job. The problem is that the complexity of all the different attractions that happen along the chains of these proteins. The same forces that cause proteins to fold up in specific ways to form the perfect key for the lock, also cause them to become attracted to one another. When enough of them clump together to form a protein aggregate, that’s a real problem.
Why do we not want aggregates?
Because when these proteins clump together, they’re not able to perform in the lock and key mechanism, so they’re not doing their job. Worse yet, when clumps of proteins get together in the human body, they stimulate an extreme immune response like anaphylactic shock. So, to make an effective and safe drug you have to get rid of the aggregates, and that’s something the FDA is actively focused on.
At the same time as the protein aggregates are floating around, so too are other things like droplets of different kinds of fluids. The kind of technology available to date hasn’t been able to analyse those tiny particles or identify which ones are dangerous. So, Spheryx’s xSight takes a hologram. From the hologram, we can now identify not only that there’s a particle there, but also how big is it and most important what kind of particle it is, all in one easy measurement.
So the main focus is quality control?
That’s a big part of it, but not the only benefit. xSight is also important in the development of new drugs because there are often many things you might want to add to your solution, but if you don’t know what effect they’re having, it’s very complicated to work out which tiny adjustments work. Instead of taking weeks or months to work these things out – and time is money when it comes to the production of medicines – we offer a quick and easy way to home in on the right ingredients to make this “pharmaceutical soup” and keep the proteins stable and safe. We help get drugs to market quicker than ever, which means even more benefits can be passed onto the consumer.
The second big market is in semiconductors/microchips. Today’s microchips are adding more features to each tiny chip, which requires a super flat surface. If you’re trying to get wires and electronic components on a nanometer scale, you need nanometer levels of flatness, which is why they do Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP). This extremely precise process uses a particular kind of slurry made up of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are much smaller than anything we can look at, but they’re used as part of the slurry to keep the semiconductor crystals flat.
These nanoparticles can clump together in the same way as the protein aggregates. If they clump together instead of polishing, they can create a scratch, which is the last thing you want because scratched microchips are useless and become waste. Spheryx’s xSight can now look at the slurries and determine whether they have the potential to cause scratches before they happen.
What does this mean in terms of cost?
There’s currently $1billion of waste in the semiconductor industry every year, just from these tiny scratches. Our new technology allows us to tackle that billion dollar problem as we monitor the quality of these slurries.
What was the process of getting the technology from testing to production?
In the academic setting at New York University where this technology was invented, a couple of graduate students were needed to make measurements in a way that had never been possible before, which meant they were able to graduate with new technology right at the frontiers of physics. Our job was to take the technology out of the research lab and into a manufactured product. At Spheryx we have now turned this research project within the perimeters of a science lab into a real product that any technician can use, in a benchtop box measuring approximately 1ft by 2 ft. By the way, some of these talented students from NYU are now employees at Spheryx.
How is your company made up in terms of personnel and business functions?
Half of what we do is the hardware, and half of it is the software. We had to make the software fast enough to make a commercially attractive product. While students can work for weeks or even months to get measurements, business need measurements in minutes. To achieve this goal, at Spheryx we accelerated the speed of analysis by a factor of 200 to make a commercially viable product. Since the first prototype we’ve accelerated it again by a factor of two, to make it closer to 400 times faster.
So, half of our company’s technical team is made up of software experts, and the other half is scientists and engineers who are designing and pushing ideas forward.
What challenges have you found when bringing this product to market, and how have they been resolved?
This technology is unlike anything our customers have in their labs. The first part of the sales process is to educate potential customers about the power of our technology, so we publish our findings in publications like the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. We also go to conferences where we have xSight making measurements and performing demonstrations. We also provide analytical services at Spheryx. It’s so exciting to be working on something so groundbreaking and helping companies solve huge problems that are critical for their progress. In this year of disease, it’s particularly meaningful to be a part of something that empowers scientists to get new drugs to the market.
What would you say to young women who want to get into science?
The most important thing is to never let anyone tell you that you can’t. If someone says to me that something’s impossible, I just see an invitation to prove otherwise! Find good mentors, a stimulating environment, and a job that makes it feel like you’re not going to work. It’s often said that there are jobs, careers and callings, so find your calling. I like to work in jobs that make me feel like I’m going to work to play. I’m also motivated by work that is of benefit to the world around me and can solve problems in people’s lives.
Laura serves on the board of a number of research institutes, medical diagnostic companies and non profit organisations, as well as having worked as Senior Policy Advisor in the Clinton Administration in the White House OSTP.
To find out more about Spheryx, visit https://spheryx.solutions/
Synopsis: Laura A. Philips, PhD, MBA, is the Founder & CEO of Spheryx, Inc, a groundbreaking company that offers innovative solutions in the world of suspension analysis. We had the pleasure of talking to Laura about Spheryx’s flagship product xSight, and what it means for the world.
Can you explain what xSight does, and the markets that will benefit most from this new technology?
Suspended in liquids, part of everything we use every day is made possible by sub visible particles. xSight enables us to characterise those particles down to a tenth to a hundredth of a human hair, by taking a hologram. There are two very special markets in which this technology solves unmet needs:
The first is Biologic Pharmaceuticals. Historically, drugs have been made out of small molecules, but the new generation of drugs are made of proteins, turned out as individual cells. We design these cells to make specific proteins that do a particular job in the human body to cure particular diseases. Think of it like a lock and key design where the protein binds to a specific site where it can do its job. The problem is that they’re very complex, because of all the different attractions that happen along the chains of these proteins. When you have two proteins together in the same place, the same forces that cause them to fold up in specific ways also cause them to become attracted to one another. When enough of them clump together to form a protein aggregate, that’s a real problem.
Why do we not want aggregates?
Because when these proteins clump together, they’re not able to perform in the lock and key mechanism, so they’re not doing their job. When clumps of proteins get together in the human body, iit stimulates an extreme immune response like anaphylactic shock. So, you have to get rid of the aggregates, and that’s something the FDA is really focused on.
At the same time as the protein aggregates are floating around, so too are other things like droplets of different kinds of fluids. The kind of technology available to date hasn’t been able to analyse those tiny particles or identify whether they’re a threat. So, we take a hologram. We can now identify not only that there’s a particle there, but also what kind of particle it is in one easy measurement.
So the main focus is quality control?
That’s a big part of it, but not the only benefit. It’s also important in the development of new drugs because there are often many things you might want to add to your solution, but if you don’t know what effect they’re having, it’s very complicated to work out which tiny adjustments work. Instead of taking weeks or months to work these things out – and time is money when it comes to the production medicines – there’s now a very quick and easy way to hone in on the right ingredients to make this “pharmaceutical soup” and keep the proteins stable and safe. So now you can get drugs to market more quickly than ever, which means even more benefits can be passed onto the consumer.
The second big market is in semiconductors/microchips. Today’s microchips are adding more features so you can get more stuff on a single tiny chip, which requires a super flat surface. If you’re trying to get wires and electronic components on a nanometer scale, you need nanometer levels of flatness, which is where they do Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP). This uses a particular kind of slurry. Nanoparticles are way smaller than anything we can look at, but they’re used as part of the slurry to keep the semiconductor crystals flat.
The nanoparticles can clump together in the same way as the protein aggregates. If they clump together instead of polishing they can create a scratch, which is the last thing you want because when the crystals are scratched, they are useless and become waste. We can now look at the slurries and examine whether they have the potential to cause scratches.
What does this mean in terms of cost?
There’s currently $1billion of waste in the semiconductor industry every year, just from these tiny scratches. Our new technology allows us to tackle that billion dollar problem as we monitor the quality of these slurries.
What was the process of getting the technology from testing to production?
We had two graduate students taking measurements in a way that had never been possible before, which meant they were able to graduate with new technology right at the frontiers of physics. Our job was to take the technology out of the research lab and into a manufactured product. This has now turned from a project within the perimeters of a science lab into a real product that any technician can use, in a benchtop box measuring approximately 1ft by 2 ft.
How is your company made up in terms of personnel and business functions?
Half of what we do is the hardware, and half of it is the software. We had to make the software fast enough, because taking a hologram of a particle requires accelerating the speed of analysis by a factor of 200 to make it commercially viable. Since the first prototype we’ve accelerated it again by a factor of two, to make it closer to 400.
So, half of our company is made up of software experts, and the other half is scientists and engineers who are designing and pushing ideas forward.
What challenges have you found when bringing this product to market, and how have they been resolved?
This kind of technology is radically revolutionary, so unlike anything our customers have in their labs. The first part of the sales process is to educate, and we publish our findings in publications like the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. We also go to conferences and do demonstrations, encouraging people to bring their samples and work as an analytical services company. It’s so exciting to be working on something so groundbreaking and helping companies solve huge problems that are critical for their progress. In this year of disease, it’s particularly meaningful to be a part of something that empowers scientists to get new drugs to the market.
What would you say to young women who want to get into science?
The most important thing is to never let anyone tell you you can’t. If someone says to me that something’s impossible, I just see an invitation to prove otherwise! Find good mentors, a stimulating environment, and a job that makes it feel like you’re not going to work. It’s often said that there are jobs, careers and callings, so find your calling. I like to work in jobs that make me feel like I’m going to work to play. I’m also motivated by work that is of benefit to the world around me and can solve problems in people’s lives.
Laura serves on the board of a number of research institutes, medical diagnostic companies and non profit organisations, as well as having worked as Senior Policy Advisor in the Clinton Administration in the White House OSTP.
To find out more about Spheryx, visit https://spheryx.solutions/