News Items

Plasso Technology Ltd has secured $2.8m (£1.5 million) second round funding from a Boston-based institutional investor which focuses on discoveries within UK academic institutions in the life sciences and physical sciences. Plasso was formed in 2003 to exploit surface modification techniques initially developed at the University of Sheffield. Its expertise and understanding of surfaces in a biological context are built on fifteen years of research. The company’s core technology involves advanced surface engineering, and provides tailored coatings to consumables such as micro arrays, lab-on-a-chip, sensors and microtitre plates used in life sciences research and diagnostics. The unique properties of these coatings provide a marked increase in sensitivity and specificity for assays within these markets. Plasso has successfully forged a number of commercial partnerships with equipment manufacturers in the life sciences and is also developing its own product portfolio aimed at the bio-instrumentation, bio-sensors, arrays and emerging diagnostics sectors. The new funding will provide the company with working capital to enable it to accelerate its research programme and product development. Commenting on the investment, Sameer Kothari, Plasso’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “This is an exciting moment in the company’s history. There is a growing demand for advanced surfaces in diagnostics and life science research and we believe our technology will play an important role, especially in the miniaturisation of assays. This additional finance will help us to further develop our product portfolio and improve our offering to existing customers.”