Forcyte Biotechnologies

Forcyte Biotechnologies is a privately-held Los Angeles-based biotechnology and biomedical engineering company founded by Ivan Pushkarsky, Dino Di Carlo, and Robert Damoiseaux. The company was founded in 2017 to leverage its proprietary FLECS technology, originally developed in the Di Carlo Bioengineering Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Utilizing the FLECS technology, Forcyte Biotechnologies provides predictive disease models, screening technology for diseases, and tools for the discovery of small molecule drugs that control mechanical force generation in individual human cells. Forcyte Biotechnologies' products include FLECS tissuoid contraction assays, FLECS single-cell contractility assays, and custom FLECS substrate development.

The FLECS technology combines advances in microtechnology and automation to access cellular force generation as a quantitative metric in high-throughput screening and analysis. The company builds and deploys assays with direct links to functional pathophysiology that can be utilized to obtain high-quality and functional data on cellular contraction at the single-cell or multi-cellular levels. Such data enables physicians and pharmaceutical companies to discover active small molecule modulators of cell force to feed into an internal pipeline across multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet needs, including preterm labor, under-active or over-active bladder, incontinence, asthma, hypertension, glaucoma, migraines, and fibrosis.