1.23.24-Japan-Cache-DNA

WILL PIERCE: Good afternoon. My name is Will Pierce, Director of Automation at Cache. Our technology enables room temperature storage of nucleic acids in furtherance of our mission to store the biomolecules of today in order to unlock the possibilities of tomorrow. Special thanks to James Banal and Mark Bathe, our MIT co-founders.

Exciting new technologies in health care and research depend on nucleic acids now more than ever. Precision medicine, cancer diagnostics, prenatal screening, disease surveillance, and multi-omics research all require handling and storage of millions of nucleic acid samples. Azenta, the current cryostorage market leader, reports that nucleic acids are the fastest growing specimen in their biorepositories, already at 15% by volume.

However, current practice of storing nucleic acids in minus 80 degree freezers does not. Scale to understand the scope of this problem, Cache has talked with dozens of industrial and academic institutions. Ginkgo Bioworks reports that their largest challenges with providing COVID testing and biosurveillance are transportation logistics and scaling.

Quest Diagnostics receives over 140,000 patient samples a day, which it stores indefinitely at minus 80 degrees. The University of Pittsburgh Biobank, their number-one cost is sample storage, and they struggle to monetize and manage their samples. And research groups, including the Broad Institute, routinely throw away valuable samples due to storage costs. There's a clear theme. Minus 80 degree storage is expensive, does not scale, and cannot meet nucleic acid storage needs.

Cache's is unique chemistry provides a better option for nucleic acid storage. We take DNA and RNA samples from any origin and bind to them to the surface of silica microbeads. These beads undergo an encapsulation process which forms a durable shell around the attached nucleic acids. This shell protects nucleic acids from degradation enabling storage at room temperature.

Once encapsulated, samples are stable for decades at room temperature. Upon sample retrieval, a short encapsulation process releases nucleic acids for downstream processing. Partial samples can also be retrieved leaving the rest of the sample preserved. No more digging through freezers, storing multiple aliquots, or worrying about freeze-thaw cycles.

Caching integrates seamlessly into existing workflows requiring no changes to upstream or downstream processing. To demonstrate this compatibility, we partnered with the North American Cancer Center to cache clinically relevant samples as part of their diagnostic workflow. We compared DNA preserved via caching at room temperature with DNA preserved using minus 80 degree freezers. Both sets of samples were sequenced, and we successfully found whole genome concordance between the two.

Challenges in nucleic acid storage and logistics extend beyond just cost and inconvenience. Many of the largest biobanks are currently located in Europe leading to overrepresentation of European populations in associated genomic studies. Representative studies, such as the 1,000 Genome Project, are tiny compared to others. This sample bias affects disease research and therapeutic development with possible health implications for underrepresented areas, including Asia and Japan.

Cache's technology is part of the solution to this problem. By enabling room temperature storage and shipping of samples, we've lowered the cost of starting new biobanks and increased access to existing samples around the globe.

Cache is actively seeking partnerships with life science tools companies, diagnostic labs, and biobanks. To explore how caching can benefit your organization through a custom pilot study, contact us via email or find me at the exhibition. Thank you.

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