10110810Modulating the ChromaTwist Dyes' Brightness: An Innovative Approach to Increasing Multiplexing in Flow CytometryClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UK**Background:** Flow cytometry (FC) is essential to immunology, haematology, cell biology and cancer research, with commercial applications in drug/vaccine/immunotherapy discovery. ChromaTwist has a patented portfolio of _molecular fluorescent dyes_ with unique properties: the dyes are excitable by UV light and chemically tunable to emit across the visible spectrum (\>50 dyes, each with a unique colour). In contrast, the commercially available UV excitable dyes are _polymer tandem dyes (PTDs)_ and are limited to 8 dyes from two manufacturers. These tandem dyes have significant usability issues, which ChromaTwist _molecular non-tandem dyes_ should overcome. The ChromaTwist dyes are potentially game-changing for FC by: * providing an alternative to the current 8 UV dyes for _conventional_ FC with improved usability * introducing a portfolio of \>50 UV dyes for the rapidly emerging _spectral_ FC, currently limited to 8 available UV dyes * Allowing variable brightness of the fluorescent output of the dyes (subject of this proposal) **_Market:_** The global flow cytometry reagent market is projected to be $2.9Bn (2027, c10% CAGR). **_ChromaTwist's Ambition:_** * establish its dyes as a leading player in the _conventional_ FC UV dye market * become the market leader in the rapidly emerging _spectral_ FC market. **_Technical Challenge to be Addressed:_** Currently when flow cytometrists are choosing multiple dye-antibody conjugates for their experiment they have to compromise because a dye may have the correct colour output, but may not be bright enough for the antigen they wish to detect. Thus, having variable brightness dyes available, with the same colour output, is the technical challenge we are addressing. **_Proposal to Address Technical Challenge_**: We have designed our chemistry to allow our dyes to be produced with tuneable brightness levels utilising our patented innovations.