Woburn’s CryoXtract Instruments Expands Engineering, Manufacturing Capabilities With Help From $800,000 MassDevelopment Loan

June 13, 2012

Contacts:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077 (cell)
Jorge de Dios, CryoXtract Instruments, 703-875-8777

MassDevelopment has provided an $800,000 Emerging Technology Fund Term (ETF) Working Capital Loan to CryoXtract Instruments, a Woburn company that develops and commercializes novel automated lab solutions that help protect critical frozen biological samples that aid advancements in molecular medicine and biomarker discovery. This new use of the ETF addresses staffing and other working capital needs for growing emerging technology companies to help them to increase both employment and production. Loan proceeds will help expedite CryoXtract’s commercialization efforts and support the company’s planned expansion, adding several engineering, marketing, manufacturing, and administration jobs over the next 18 months.

“CryoXtract combines two of the Commonwealth’s most vibrant industries: the life sciences and advanced manufacturing,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “Through the Emerging Technology Fund, MassDevelopment is pleased to support innovations and new jobs at these cutting-edge businesses.”

CryoXtract’s one-of-a-kind Frozen Sample Aliquotting technology, initially conceived at Harvard Medical School in collaboration with Northeastern University, offers the only means to repeatedly extract critical research samples without exposing them to damaging freeze/thaw cycles that degrade their integrity. The company developed and is commercializing the fully-automated CXT750, the first of a planned family of laboratory solutions based on the Frozen Sample Aliquotter technology. These instruments are designed to increase overall sample quality, biospecimen use, and efficiencies while reducing operating costs for biorepositories and biobanks. The CXT750 recently received the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories’ (ISBER) 2012 Outstanding New Product Award.

“We are seeing rapidly growing interest in our unique automated solutions. The availability of high-quality biosamples is one of the most critical challenges and limiting factors to contemporary research, biomarker discovery, and personalized medicine. The research, biopharma, and biobanking communities understand that our technology’s ability to protect sample quality can bolster the success of critical research studies,” said Jorge de Dios, CryoXtract’s CEO. “This loan from MassDevelopment is a very important way to propel our growth plans and expand our R&D, marketing and manufacturing activities in 2012 and beyond.”

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2011, MassDevelopment financed or managed more than 300 projects generating investment of $3.8 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 10,000 jobs (2,547 permanent and 8,129 construction), and build or rehabilitate more than 1,000 residential units.