Minos Biosciences

Minos is a French deeptech startup aiming at revolutionising our understanding of complex diseases such as cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases. By offering a breakthrough, yet affordable, adaptable, easy-to-use, all-in-one platform, Minos’ solution allows researchers to link a cell’s dynamic, phenotypic behaviour to its OMIC, molecular profile, gleaning unprecedentedly accurate and comprehensive insights into phenotype-genotype interactions at cell resolution. Unlike existing technologies, our platform allows linking genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic profiles of hundreds of thousands of cells to their individual phenotype and behaviour. We will offer a variety of cellular profiling assays that allow the functional and dynamic characterisation of cells from the same sample, allowing a deeper understanding of cell behaviour, heterogenous drug responses, host-pathogen interactions, which are central to improving therapeutics in the aforementioned fields, notably in the precision medicine space.

At the heart of our technology are microfluidic chips based on our patented thermo-sensitive hydrogel cages for cell capture, combined with multiplexed DNA barcoding of individual cells’ nucleic acids. Our self-contained microfluidic device is coupled to an imaging system for dynamic phenotyping of individual or multiple cells, a cloud-based AI software for data analytics and visualisation, and a variety of off-the-shelf kits that we will continue to strategically expand based on our users’ unmet needs.

Beyond the scientific community, our technology will revolutionise R&D in the pharmaceutical industry by allowing a comprehensive and actionable understanding of drugs’ mechanism of action and drug resistance at an individual patient level by integrating genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic and cell behavioural data. In biotech, our technology can be used in a multitude of ways, notably for target validation and drug discovery, including vaccine-based as well as cell and gene therapies. Long-term, this will help inform the development and choice of precision medicines that bypass drug resistance pathways with fewer side effects. Similarly, our technology will enable next-generation diagnostics which we anticipate to be as disruptive as genomics has been in this space.

Team: Our core team comprises recognized pioneers in microfluidics, material science, molecular and cellular biology, device and software development for the Life Sciences. With proven scientific and managerial excellence, our team is very-well posed to accomplish the ambitious goal of turning Minos’ technology into a must-have device in every Life Sciences research laboratory in the short-term, Pharma / biotech R&D facilities in the medium term, and in diagnostic labs in the long-term.

Business Model: Minos' business model is based on developing and commercialising, assay kits with microfluidic chips, instrumentation, and software that enable users to easily link omics data to dynamic phenotypic information at the single cell level in complex biological samples (eg: dissociated tumours). While our instruments and software will be sold once upfront, with a 4-year replacement cycle for our instrument and a shorter upgrading cycle for our software, the bulk of Minos’ revenue will come from consumables purchase and an increasingly diversified offering of assay kits to meet our customers’ needs. Minos will also pursue partnerships with research institutions, CROs and biotechs to expand its market reach and further develop its technology. Our main clients are (in chronological order) fundamental & translational research in labs and hospitals (often through core facilities), CROs & CMOs, biotech and pharma companies, primarily in Europe, North America, and Asia.