Atrandi's New Capsule Tech Aims to Revolutionize Single-Cell Research

ORLANDO, FL – February 19, 2026 – Lithuanian life sciences firm Atrandi Biosciences is poised to make a significant impact on the single-cell analysis landscape with the launch of two new products designed to overcome critical limitations in biological research. The company has expanded its portfolio with 170 µm and 300 µm SPC Innovator Kits, tools that enable scientists to encapsulate and perform complex, multi-step experiments on larger cellular structures like spheroids and organoids for the first time at scale.

The announcement comes as the company prepares to showcase its patented Semi-Permeable Capsule (SPC) technology at the prestigious Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) General Meeting in Orlando next week. This development signals a strategic move to challenge established players in the multi-billion dollar single-cell genomics market by offering a new level of flexibility and experimental power to researchers in fields from oncology to developmental biology.

Breaking the Mold of Single-Cell Analysis

For years, the gold standard in high-throughput single-cell analysis has been droplet microfluidics, a technology that partitions individual cells into millions of tiny, isolated oil droplets. While revolutionary for enabling massive-scale “one-shot” experiments like transcriptomic snapshots, these closed systems present a major hurdle for more complex biological questions. Performing sequential chemical reactions—such as cell lysis, buffer exchange, and multi-step molecular barcoding—or cultivating cells over time is notoriously difficult, as the impermeable droplets prevent the exchange of reagents.

Atrandi’s SPC technology directly addresses this bottleneck. Instead of trapping cells in immutable droplets, it encapsulates them in microscopic, hydrogel-based capsules with sieve-like, semi-permeable walls. This innovative design retains the cell and its large molecules, like genomic DNA, while allowing smaller molecules—including buffers, nutrients, and enzymes—to freely diffuse in and out. This transforms single-cell workflows, effectively turning millions of individual capsules into addressable micro-test tubes that can be processed in bulk with simple lab equipment like pipettes.

“For years, single-cell has been constrained by compartments that are great for one reaction but become fragile when workflows demand multiple steps,” said Juozas Nainys, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Atrandi Biosciences, in a recent statement. “We built SPCs to bridge the gap where standard protocol meets biology, and biology refuses to behave.”

The scientific community has taken note. The fundamental approach was recently validated in a landmark paper in Science, where researchers at Harvard Medical School utilized the underlying semi-permeable capsule technology to conduct high-throughput, multi-step assays that combined live-cell culture with genome-wide readouts. This independent validation underscores the technology’s potential to expand the scope of questions that can be answered at a massive scale.

Unlocking Complex Biology: From Spheroids to Organoids

The launch of the larger 170 µm and 300 µm kits marks a pivotal expansion of this capability. While smaller capsules are suitable for individual bacteria or mammalian cells, these new kits are purpose-built for the complex, three-dimensional cell structures that are becoming indispensable in modern research. The 170 µm capsules can support the formation of spheroids, while the 300 µm capsules can accommodate even larger organoids—miniature, lab-grown organs that more accurately mimic human physiology.

This is particularly transformative for several fields:

• Oncology: Researchers can now grow tumor organoids from patient samples inside the capsules, expose them to various drug compounds over time, and then perform deep multiomic analysis on each individual cell to understand why some cells die and others develop resistance. This offers a powerful platform for personalized medicine and drug discovery.
• Developmental Biology: The ability to culture and sustain organoids within SPCs allows for unprecedented observation of cell differentiation and tissue formation, providing critical insights into human development and congenital diseases.
• Immunology: Scientists can co-culture immune cells with target cells, track their interactions, and then analyze the functional and genomic state of each cell, accelerating the development of next-generation immunotherapies.

The system’s flexibility, paired with Atrandi’s Onyx microfluidic platform for generating the capsules, empowers individual labs to design and optimize custom assays without being locked into a rigid, pre-packaged system.

A Strategic Play in a Competitive Market

Atrandi’s product expansion is a calculated move in a market dominated by giants like 10x Genomics, whose droplet-based platforms are ubiquitous in labs worldwide. Rather than competing head-on with a similar technology, Atrandi is carving out a distinct and valuable niche focused on workflow flexibility and biological complexity. By solving the multi-step problem, the company is targeting advanced research applications that are difficult or impossible to perform with conventional systems.

This strategy is backed by significant investor confidence. After an initial funding round of €4.5 million in 2023, the company recently secured a $25 million Series A led by Lux Capital, with participation from Vsquared Ventures and others. The capital is fueling its global commercialization efforts, including the establishment of a US office in Boston to support its growing customer base.

This financial backing and a clear technological advantage position Atrandi as a serious contender. While competitors like Parse Biosciences and Mission Bio offer innovative solutions for high-throughput barcoding and targeted DNA sequencing, respectively, Atrandi’s focus on enabling cultivation and sequential chemistry within a scalable format offers a unique value proposition. The company’s embrace of open-source assay designs further appeals to innovative labs eager to push the boundaries of their research.

From the Lab Bench to Future Cures

The ultimate promise of Atrandi’s technology lies in its potential to accelerate translational research. By making complex experiments more practical and scalable, SPCs can shorten the path from fundamental biological discovery to clinical application. The ability to perform true multiomics—linking a cell’s genotype, transcriptome, and phenotype in a single, continuous workflow—is a critical step toward a more holistic understanding of disease.

At the upcoming AGBT meeting, the company plans to present data that substantiates these claims. Poster presentations on “Next-generation karyotyping” and a “scalable platform for single-cell co-profiling of the transcriptome and genotype” will provide tangible evidence of the technology's power. These applications demonstrate a capacity for high-resolution genomic analysis and integrated multi-modal assays that could have profound implications for diagnostics and therapeutic development.

By providing tools that allow biology to be studied in a more dynamic and multi-faceted way, Atrandi is empowering scientists to tackle previously intractable problems. The company, whose name means “you discover” in Lithuanian, is working to deliver on that very promise, helping researchers uncover what biology has kept hidden. The launch of these new innovator kits is a clear signal that the next frontier of single-cell analysis will not be confined to a single snapshot in time, but will instead embrace the full, dynamic complexity of life.