Farmington, CT – Encapsulate, Inc., a precision medicine startup developing automated biochip systems for personalized cancer treatment, has been awarded a $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The funding will support the continued development and scaling of Encapsulate’s automated biochip platform and its clinical application in cancer treatment. The system performs ex vivo drug screening on patient-derived microtumors, enabling oncologists to receive personalized therapeutic recommendations within days. The project will also include retrospective and prospective clinical studies in pancreatic and colorectal cancers, two of the most lethal cancers with historically high treatment failure rates.

Encapsulate’s headquarters in Farmington, Connecticut will serve as the primary place of performance. The company will collaborate with UConn Health (UCH), Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and Hartford HealthCare (HHC) to clinically validate the technology.

Key investigators on the project include Dr. Joel Levine, Dr. John Birk, Dr. David Wozny, Dr. Shane Sacco, and Dr. Tiago Biachi.

“This award marks a significant milestone for Encapsulate’s mission to bring truly personalized and timely cancer treatment options to patients,” said Dr. Armin Rad, CEO and Co-Founder of Encapsulate. “We’re excited to work with our world-class clinical partners to advance this technology for one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat cancers.”

#NSF #SBIR #PrecisionOncology #Cancer