BCAT News

A high-tech company that develops portable biosensors that can be used for virus detection is looking to move into its new Burlington Headquarters. 

According to a letter to the Planning Department, SiPhox has leased a space at 111 Terrace Hall Ave. and is preparing to occupy it. 

According to the letter, SiPhox is developing a portable biosensor using chip-scale integration of the optics, electronics, microfluidics and biochemistry. The biosensor consists of a reusable reader and cartridge. 

The letter adds that SiPhox’s first product is a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test for which they will seek Emergency Use Authorization in the summer. 

“This will be the first SARS-CoV-2 test fully functional on a semiconductor chip and therefore able to be scaled in the billions by leveraging the existing semiconductor infrastructure of a single fab,” the letter states. 

The site at 111 Terrace Hall Ave will be used as SiPhox’s administrative, design and research headquarters. Production of SiPhox’s biosensors will be outsourced to contract manufacturers. The research laboratory will serve mainly as an optics and electronics laboratory. 

According to the company, the main activities they engage in are as follows:

• We utilize electrical equipment such as oscilloscopes, temperature drivers, spectrometers, and source generators to test and calibrate lasers in our process of miniaturization. 
• We design silicon masks, analytical protocols, and optical setups as well as the software required to run our products.  
• We utilize reagents such as IPA alcohol and acetone to clean silicon chips, for later processing. In this later processing we micro-print non-hazardous proteins onto the chip surface. This microprinting is done by pipetting and microprinting. 
• We use positive pressure to flow protein on the chips while testing the sensor response with optics. We utilize microfluidics stages for this process, some of which are 3D printed in biocompatible resin.
• We engage in testing various antibodies, buffers, and enzymes for the purpose of creating our single-use cartridges. Therefore, we do some immunoassays such as ELISA testing with different buffers, antibodies, and non-hazardous viral proteins. Which are prepared by centrifuging, shaking, and pipetting.

The application for a special permit is scheduled to be before the Planning Board on Thursday, February 18.