Life sciences and health solutions
Leverage our R&D and innovation services for your breakthroughs in advanced precision medicine and genomic solutions – enabling a revolution in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
With more people living longer and chronic diseases on the rise, traditional healthcare systems are pushed to their limits. Costs skyrocket, specialized personnel are hard to find, and emerging treatments and tools are not universally available.
At imec, we’re committed to building another future, a future in which smart health concepts such as precision medicine and genomics are brought within everyone's reach, resulting in personalized treatments with better outcomes and lower costs.
If this is also your goal, if your organization also looks to build next-generation, patient-centered tools to prevent, diagnose or cure adverse health conditions, then we should definitely talk.
Silicon technology to help transform genomics and beyond
Innovations in genomics are changing the way we look at diseases from flu to cancer. It’s a frontline solution not only during pandemics, but also to support today’s research and clinical diagnosis. This evolution is taking place at a fast-moving speed, and imec is one of the R&D hubs that drives this innovation. Today already, our expertise and process technologies support some of the major sequencing players, across the workflow.
Imec’s state-of-the-art 300mm chip manufacturing fabs are the ideal environment for developing novel chips that will be at the core of future solutions for next-generation sequencing, proteomics, spatial omics, single-cell sequencing, ...
We have a comprehensive range of IP, tailored for genomics use. These cover all steps of genomic analysis, from sample prep over DNA reading to analysis:
- next-generation sequencing (NGS) chip technology
- microfluidic sample preparation
- DNA extraction
- fast whole-genome or targeted amplification
- droplet generation and manipulation
- droplet PCR
- cell sorting
- fluorescence detection
- cell lysis
- micro-arrays
- DNA synthesis
Want to know more? Read our whitepaper ‘Cross-layer optimization. The key to future sequencing solutions’.
A silicon chip + glass microfluidic device filled with liquid, developed at imec.
Silicon technology boosting precision in cell and gene therapy
Cell and gene therapies are emerging therapeutic methodologies that involve the transfer of either whole cells or genetic material to the patient. They can be applied in a wide range of treatments such as therapy for specific cancers or regenerative therapy for genetic diseases and degenerative disorders such as leukemia.
Cell therapy offers tremendous advantages because it is by design a personal treatment. However, by the same token, this is hugely challenging as each individual’s cells are different and the variability makes it hard to automate and scale the therapy. Also here, our expertise and the precision of silicon technology may come to the rescue:
- biosensing chips for single-patient bioprocessing and cell therapy
- on-chip, parallelized cell sorter for precision manufacturing
- lens-free imaging for automated cell quality imaging
- multi-electrode array (MEA) for precise cell transduction
Our white paper contains a wealth of additional information. You can request it here: ‘Raising the bar in manufacturing cell therapy products’.
Boosting drug discovery, enhancing trials, and pharma production
If you’re active in the pharma industry, there’s a good chance you find yourself navigating through several major transformations.
- Digital technologies are fast becoming a cornerstone of your research instead of playing a mere supporting role.
- High-performance computing and AI are now essential in discovering and validating new drugs and therapies.
- There’s the prospect of apps and wireless devices gathering real-world evidence of drug effectiveness and driving virtual clinical trials.
For all of these challenges and more, imec is working on breakthrough solutions:
- preclinical phase and drug discovery, e.g., with our cell sorter, PCR-based workflow, or other on-chip platforms and methods driven by AI
- clinical phase of drug development, e.g. with connected companion devices, or breakthrough diagnostic testing
- pre-market approval clinical trials (Phases I, II & III), e.g. with the help of our wearable sensors, sensor arrays, or bioburden DNA testing
- post-market studies (Phase IV), e.g. through performance-based evidence generation or biomarker studies
Medical devices for monitoring, sensing and therapeutics
Our innovative sensors and devices continuously and comfortably monitor digital biomarkers in the body. Medical-grade tools like these have the potential to make healthcare more personal, preventive, and predictive, based on real-time, personal data.
Join forces with our team of hardware and software experts to accelerate and de-risk your development of medtech devices for (remote) patient monitoring, in-body and out-of-body sensing and stimulation by getting access to the technology building blocks driving the next generation of wearable, implantable, ingestible and non-contact medical devices:
- implantable technologies for wireless charging, powering and communications
- acoustic sensing, powering and stimulation for a wide range of medical applications
- next-generation ingestible sensor technologies
- custom biomedical systems-on-chip that integrate essential functions, while maintaining medical-grade fidelity
- BLE and ULP radio for secure, low-power and user-friendly data transfer
A millimeter-scale wireless transceiver for electronic pills, developed by imec.
Did you know a custom ASIC can be a real product differentiator in medical devices? ASIC fabrication is no longer only for large enterprises: these technologies are now also affordable and accessible for start-ups. Imec.IC-link provides access to advanced ASIC foundry technologies from design to prototyping and mass manufacturing.
Neuropixels, the new golden standard in neuroscience
The launch of the first Neuropixels probe in 2017 marks the start of a paradigm shift in neuroscience. It enables to record signals from hundreds and thousands of individual neurons simultaneously and for an extended period of time, revolutionizing the way neuroscience is performed.
The neuropixels probes, now used in more than 400 labs worldwide, are developed and fabricated leveraging imec’s silicon platform. It’s the first fully-integrated silicon CMOS digital neural probe that combines best-in-class performance with unrivalled cost-effectiveness and reliability.
The Neuropixels probe was developed through an international collaboration funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Wellcome Trust, Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Neuropixels 2.0, showcasing the ultimate power of CMOS integration, with more than 5,000 recording sites.
Choose imec as your partner to develop your technologies for genomics, drug discovery, cell therapy and medtech
Today, imec is the world’s number one research center in product-oriented R&D, prototyping and access to production of silicon and nanotechnology solutions for life sciences and healthcare. We work with world-class companies, from ambitious start-ups to established industry leaders aspiring to advance healthcare and life sciences through new technologies and tools.
Want to partner with us? Here are a few of the many possibilities:
- Agree with us on a bilateral collaboration to R&D your custom solution, or any part of it.
- Acquire applied research services for technology-based biomarker discovery, support with design, execution and analysis of data from clinical trials and generation of data-grounded evidence.
- Enlist our help for the development, prototyping and low-volume manufacturing of custom microdevices for medtech devices.
- Contact us for a custom ASIC for your wearable or implantable medical device.
- Partake in our multiproject wafer runs to fabricate your photonics and biophotonics chip designs.
