Abby Cutchin, Director of Product Management at Element Biosciences, delivered a presentation on the commercial strategy for AVITI24 and the acceleration of drug discovery through high-dimensional multiomics. Cutchin began by introducing Element Biosciences, a San Diego-based company known for its bench-top sequencing platform. She emphasised that the company was focused on more than just sequencing, developing multiomic tools to aid drug development.
Cutchin explained the complexity of biology, highlighting the various molecules involved in the functional unit of biology, the cell. She discussed the development of multiomic tools over the past two decades, which have transformed biological samples into sequencing libraries. However, she noted the challenges of integrating data from multiple assays and the foundational insight of Element Biosciences to simplify this process by adhering biological samples directly onto a sequencing flow cell.
Cutchin described the AVITI24 platform, which allows for the measurement of cell morphology, protein expression, and RNA expression simultaneously. She explained the significance of capturing spatial coordinates of molecules and the ability to look at large tissue sections to understand tissue architecture. She also mentioned the creation of slide kit consumables that partition the surface area of the flow cell, enabling the study of different time courses and drug combinations.
Cutchin provided examples of the platform's applications, including target discovery and understanding mechanisms of response and resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. She shared data on the use of AVITI24 for optical pooled screening and the discovery of effective combination therapies. She also introduced new assays for direct in-sample sequencing, which allow for the sequencing of native transcripts inside cells without library preparation.
