Immucor Inc, Norcross, GA, a leading transfusion and transplantation diagnostics company, has acquired Sentilus Inc, Durham, NC, a privately held company focused on developing Femtoarrays, a novel, inkjet-printed antibody microarray-based technology. Sentilus has been developing Femtoarrays and the underlying technology for use in a variety of in vitro diagnostics areas, including transfusion diagnostics.

Sentilus is led by Ashutosh Chilkoti, PhD, chair of the department of biomedical engineering and director of the center for biologically inspired materials and material systems at Duke University, and cofounder and CEO Angus Hucknall. Sentilus was formed in 2012 with the goal of developing applications of a non-fouling surface coating developed by Chilkoti. Sentilus’s primary commercialization efforts have focused on the use of this coating technology for clinical diagnostics, based on Hucknall’s doctoral research at Duke.

Hawkins

William A Hawkins

“We are very impressed with Sentilus’s Femtoarrays technology, which we think will be a great fit with our transfusion business as a potential next-generation technology platform,” says William A. Hawkins, Immucor’s president and CEO. “Femtoarrays will underpin a full complement of next-generation immunohematology assays. Additionally, we believe the technology has the potential for broad application throughout in vitro diagnostics.”

“We are excited to be teaming up with Immucor to advance the development of our proprietary technology,” says Chilkoti. “With Immucor’s focus on ensuring transfusion and transplantation safety, we are excited to join forces with them to bring our novel microarray-based technology to the market.”

For more information, visit Immucor.