Cenya Imaging BV (CENYA) is an SME based in the Netherlands. CENYA is a clinical stage company developing medical imaging agents to track cells in patients and measure the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of cell therapies.
Cell therapies, in which cells are administered to patients as a treatment, hold tremendous promise for treating many different diseases. However, cell therapies still have a number of hurdles to clear prior to becoming widely deployed. One such hurdle is an inability to measure the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of cell therapies in patients over extended periods of time. CENYA solves this problem with its patented BEACONS (beads for contrast enhancement), which label cell therapies to then track and quantify them using medical imaging when administered to patients.
CENYA BEACONS are:
- Approved for use in a human clinical trial
- Enable quantitation of cells in vivo
- Available at GMP or non-GMP grade
- Readily fit in existing cell therapy workflows
- May be adapted for multimodal imaging
- Validated in various in vitro and in vivo models
CENYA BEACONS are polymer-entrapped perfluorocarbons, delivered as a stable powder. The agents are based on ongoing research, and have been applied to 19F MRI, ultrasound, fluorescence and photoacoustics. They can be made for lab (preclinical) use, or at GMP grade. BEACONS have been approved for clinical testing and combine several imaging modalities, including 19F MRI, ultrasound and fluorescence. They can also be adapted for photoacoustics (optoacoustics/MSOT), and nuclear imaging (SPECT, PET). 19F MRI allows for quantification without the use of radioactivity.
Within PHOENIX, CENYA is looking at ways to produce the imaging agents more efficiently at GMP-grade.