Chris and Michael approached the Hatchery with a business plan and intellectual property that they were passionate about. Their brilliant idea was to commercialize a biochemical platform to facilitate research into aging-associated diseases. They had the drive and passion to implement their idea, and the Hatchery was there to support them in this endeavor.
The Idea
While at the University of Toronto, Chris joined a laboratory that researched genome stability, aging, and cancer in yeast. During his position, it became apparent that one of the key experiments performed by the lab – the measurement of replicative lifespan, a powerful experiment that can be used when researching cancer and other aging-associated diseases – was very difficult to perform. The micromanipulator technology was slow, low-throughput, and laborious. With his brother Michael, who was studying biomedical engineering, they began to work to automate this experiment. If successful, this advancement would significantly improve experimental accuracy, increase the rate of data collection, and lower lab operating costs. Towards this end, Cytospan Technologies was founded in early 2012.
