BioSpyder awarded 5-year EPA contract, up to $25 million to perform high throughput genetic toxicology screening.

BioSpyder Technologies, Inc. has been awarded an additional contract to perform High Throughput Toxicology Screening by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE). Since 2015, the EPA’s HHT Research Program has contracted with BioSpyder to perform toxicology screening using the BioSpyder TempO-Seq assay. This new contract reflects the EPA’s commitment to using new approach methods to evaluate chemicals and a high level of satisfaction with BioSpyder's s TempO-Seq assay.  

The EPA's CCTE coordinates the High Throughput Toxicology (HTT) Research Program, which is part of the EPA's broader Chemical Safety for Sustainability Strategic Research Action Plan. A major part of the EPA’s HTT research is the Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast™). ToxCast is a multi-year effort launched in 2007 that uses high-throughput methods to expose living cells or isolated proteins to chemicals. The cells or proteins are then screened for changes in biological activity that may be indicative of potential toxic effects and eventually potential adverse health effects. The BioSpyder TempO-Seq assay has proven to be highly efficient and cost effective in screening the 100,000’s of samples that are being generated.  

The team at the EPA CCTE grows cells and lyse in TempO-Seq buffer then ships them to BioSpyder in multi-well plate format. No purification step is required, saving cost and removing purification bias. BioSpyder assays the samples through multiplexed Tempo-Seq assays that measure transcriptomic changes for up to 20,000 – 30,000 protein coding genes directly on the cell lysates provided. Following sequencing, results including gene counts, QC metrics, and sequencing files are securely transferred to the EPA for analysis.  

BioSpyder has been awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency Computational Toxicology a 5-year contract with a value up to $25,000,000. This contract is the latest in a series of contracts awarded to BioSpyder from the EPA for HTT research since 2015. Three other contracts were awarded to BioSpyder by this organization, for $5 million, $10 million and $25 million, and have been fully utilized and successfully fulfilled.