Is life science synonymous with biochemistry? The Viennese AIT spin-off Cellectric is using electrodynamics, a completely different technology, to work with cells. The first use case is ready and the potential is enormous. The start-up is also being supported by aws on its way to becoming a successful business.

‘The membrane of every cell has a specific electrical charge. In a stem cell, for example, this charge determines whether it becomes a muscle cell or a bone cell. And before a healthy cell becomes a cancer cell, the membrane discharges completely,’ explains Klemens Wassermann, co-founder of the Viennese startup Cellectric.

 

Heard of the ‘electrome’?

The realization described above is relatively new in science. It is only in recent years that the term ‘electrome’ has begun to be used to describe these electrical properties of cells – analogous to those of the ‘genome’. Wassermann and his co-founder Terje Wimberger had already been researching this for more than ten years before spinning off Cellectric from the Austrian Institute Of Technology (AIT) in 2021.

With their startup, the two are providing a technology to utilize these cell properties in medicine and biology. To this end, they have built up a team of more than twenty people from 14 countries, with experts from universities such as Cambridge and ETH Zürich. There is also an advisory board with luminaries from the field, such as Diederik Engbersen, whom Wassermann describes as the ‘Godfather of blood culture’, and Peter Kaspar, who brings decades of experience from Roche Diagnostics, among others.

‘Life science today normally means biochemistry. This is very labor-intensive and often toxic. With electrodynamics, we want to bring a completely new way of working with cells to biology and medicine,’ says the founder. He is convinced that this will revolutionise both fields. ‘Just as DNA sequencing has become the standard in laboratories in recent decades, the same will happen with electrome-based methods,’ Wassermann expects.

 

Cellectric: scanning a pool full of red M&Ms to find the blue one

With its first major use case, Cellectric recently launched pilot studies with the Vienna General Hospital and several companies. One of the startup’s devices is being used to diagnose blood poisoning (sepsis) much faster than was previously possible. ‘Diagnosing infections is traditionally like looking for a needle in a haystack, because the germs are hidden behind an extremely large number of human cells,’ explains Wassermann. He illustrates: ‘You have to imagine an Olympic-size pool full of red M&Ms in which there is exactly one blue M&M that you want to find’.

The classic procedure: Wait one to two days to be able to recognize whether germs are multiplying in blood samples. ‘In the case of sepsis, the patients are already in intensive care by then, especially in the case of antibiotic-resistant germs,’ explains Wassermann.

And what does Cellectric do? ‘We leave out the pool,’ says the founder. Specifically, the startup’s technology makes it possible to increase the charge on the cell membranes in a blood sample. ‘In this use case, we increase the charge of the cells so much that the human cells burst. However, bacteria and fungi remain whole and thus become visible,’ says Wassermann.

 

Many opportunities on the path between infection diagnosis and cancer therapy

This use case was also chosen because it meant that there were comparatively lower hurdles in the area of ‘sample preparation’ when it came to authorization, which is notoriously complex for medical devices. ‘Initially, we wanted to build a complete device that also performs diagnostics. Instead, we decided to combine our device with already approved devices in order to get to market faster,’ says Wassermann. In this case, faster means 2028, when Cellectric plans to launch its technology in cooperation with a market leader in the field. A license model is also planned for the long term – the startup wants to continue to focus on research and development.

The founder is convinced that the possibilities of the technology go far beyond infection diagnosis. ‘For example, we have already proven that we can only burst cancer cells with it, but the healthy cells remain intact,’ says Wassermann. He has also succeeded in manipulating cells in such a way that they can absorb molecules from outside. However, the technology to manipulate the charge of the cell membrane precisely is still lacking. ‘Cellectric is developing this,’ says the founder and sets out the vision: ’If you can control the electrometer precisely, you can completely control biology in a new way.’

One of the few other scientists in the field worldwide, a US scientist, is even working with financial support from the military to regrow extremities using the electrodynamic manipulation of stem cells. However, there is still a very long way to go until then, or until the aforementioned cancer therapy – which offers many easier-to-implement use cases, says Wassermann. For example, researchers are also working on an electrodynamic alternative to cytolysis, the dissolution of cells, for laboratories. A chemical agent normally used for this has only just been banned.

 

Cellectric relies on aws funding for business development

Despite all its potential, Cellectric‘s path to significant sales will definitely take some time. The startup is therefore dependent on external capital for financing. In addition to an investment from Xista Science Ventures, the company relies primarily on funding – and is successful in doing so.

While several research projects have been and are being financed through FFG funding, the company has already utilized two aws grants to develop the business, explains Wassermann. ‘The aws Preseed subsidy fully financed us in the startup phase. We used it to set up the company, further develop the product and get everything up and running. Among other things, we used the aws seed funding to hire a quality manager and a financial controller and to set up the ISO department,’ explains Wassermann.

Further investments and funding commitments are set to follow in the coming years. ‘We are currently setting up our seed capital round, which should finance us until the end of 2026. Many projects will then already be supported by major partners in co-development,’ explains the founder. A Series A round in 2026 will then be used to build the ‘broad platform’ that will ultimately be used to enter the market. ‘We then want to establish Cellectric as a technology provider that enables a wide range of applications in the life science sector,’ says Wassermann.

 

 

You can also read the original article in German, as featured in brutkasten