Narvalus

The company

  • Spin-off of the University of Padova;established in 2005, it operates in the area of nanotechnology and has developed a technology for the electroporation of individual cells.
  • The single cell electroporation system developed by Narvalus provides elegant solutions to the problems of traditional electroporation: the electroporation is carried out directly on each individual cell, which can be grown on the chip. The method is proprietary, selective and can be automated. Potential applications include the manufacturing of biologicals and production of transgenic and knockout animal strains.
  • One patent filed in 2004.
  • Selected publication: “Space and time-resolved gene expression experiments on cultured mammalian cells by a single-cell electroporation microarray”, Vassanelli et al. (2008) N Biotechnol., 25: 55-67
    [link:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18504020]

Current Status

  • Narvalus has completed laboratory tests for a number of applications of the single cell electroporation technology, involving the administration of small molecules, oligonucleotides, proteins, antibodies, plasmids, and siRNA into different cell types (primary cells and immortalized cell lines).
  • The set-up and validation of the first generation prototype single cell electroporator has been completed.
  • Set-up and validation of the second generation prototype, which will be used to validate the technology for biological manufacturing, is ongoing.