Synthace

Synthace is a software company, founded in 2011 by Sean Ward, Markus Gershater, and Christopher Grant. Synthace builds software tools that work with scientists and their lab hardware with the goal of improving lab productivity. Their software allows scientists to communicate with their lab hardware in a way that lets them plan, execute, and repeat biological experiments.

Introducing Synthace

Antha is a cloud based operating platform made by Synthace. Antha is made to help scientists design, execute, analyze, and replicate aspects of their lab work. The company claims that Antha can produce a 100-fold improvement in lab productivity, a 50% reduction in the time it takes to generate internal vector constructions, a 33% reduction in the cost of running experiments, and an increase in enzymatic activity by 100X compared to pre-Antha platforms. Below you can find brief descriptions of specific services Antha software offers to users which are: construct assembly, data integration, and liquid handling.

Antha helps scientists build type IIS construct assemblies by automating and reproducing the workflow of lab hardware involved in construct assembly. This automation is made possible through the use of liquid handling robots that can perform lab tasks involved in construct assembly. Antha software allows work flows of different lab hardware systems to work together, such as construct assembly, transformation, and plating-out. These process can be automated, reproduced, and customized to the needs of each laboratory. Antha software keeps track of and organizes information generated by lab hardware, producing clean data sets for scientists to work with, and offers online and offline visualization tools that can be easily shared with other users. Antha software is integrated with: Azure, GitHub, Python, Jupyter, Pandas, matplotlib, numpy, and jmp.

Introducing Antha

On April 12th, 2013 Synthace raised $900,000 in funding from Sharaf Yamani, Sami Mikati, Michail Eleftheriou, John Anthony Knight, and David Lucas.

Synthace raised $2,000,000 in seed funding on September 24th, 2013. Investors include Sofinnova Partners, Innovative UK, and Keith Willey.

On December 14th, 2014 Synthace announced that it raised $3,500,000 in seed funding from Sofinnova Partners, SOSventures, Bioeconomy Capital, and the Rainbow Seed Fund.

Synthace completed its series A funding round on September 19th, 2017. They received $9,600,000 in funding from White Cloud Capital (Luminous Ventures), Sofinnova Partners, SOSventures, Bioeconomy Capital, Amadeus Capital, and 11.2 Capital.

In April 2017, Synthace announced a partnership with Cambridge Consultants. The partnership is focused on promoting the adoption and improvement of Synthace's Antha software. Cambridge Consultants is offering a consulting service to help companies get the most out of Antha by helping implement features of Antha in their labs such as; process development, protocol development, custom equipment development, and automation integration. The partnership is focused on promoting the adoption and improvement of Synthace's Antha software. Cambridge Consultants is offering a consulting service to help companies get the most out of Antha by helping implement features of Antha in their labs, such as process development, protocol development, custom equipment development, and automation integration.

Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, announced it will begin collaborating with Synthace in October, 2015. The partnership is a research collaboration effort between the two companies to improve crop protection. Dow AgroSciences will be using Antha with their own fermentation technology to develop new microbial strains capable of producing desired chemicals. By using Antha, Dow ArgoSciences hopes to develop new products faster and cheaper for farmers that will help prevent pest infestation and control disease in ways that increase crop yields.

Gilson and Synthace announced their partnership in April, 2018. The companies pledged to begin working together to merge Antha with Gilson's liquid handling platform PIPETMAX. They are working on creating a visual drag-and-drop system that will allow the people using PIPETMAX to customize their workflows. The software system will be able to be used remotely for programming many tasks of the PIPETMAX, such as transfers, dilutions, master mix preparation, and provide data management.

In November 2015, Merck and Synthace announced they will be working together to optimize their Antha software to become a better bio-manufacturing platform. Synthace is hoping to use the large amount of experience Merck has in manufacturing pharmaceuticals to improve the functionality of their Antha software.

On April 6th, 2016 a partnership was announced between Microsoft and Synthace. The partnership is through Microsofts BizSpark Plus program, and gives Synthace the ability to use the Azure cloud analytics, cognitive services, and machine learning capabilities of Microsoft to improve Antha and Synthace. The partnership is through Microsofts BizSpark Plus program, and gives Synthace the ability to use the Azure cloud analytics, cognitive services, and machine learning capabilities of Microsoft to improve Antha.

Oxford Biomedica is the lead partner in this partnership of Synthace, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, and Stratophase. The partnerships with these companies was announced in August, 2017 and is focused on developing more efficient cell and gene manufacturing systems and technologies.