Bifrost Biosystems Signs Commercial Supply Agreement with Illumina to Accelerate Optical Pooled Screening Platform Launch
Bifrost Biosystems has announced a significant commercial milestone with the signing of a supply agreement with Illumina that will enable the integration of Illumina’s widely adopted sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) chemistry into Bifrost’s upcoming Optical Pooled Screening (OPS) platform. The collaboration marks an important step toward the commercialization of Bifrost’s innovative single-cell research technology, which is expected to become commercially available in early 2027.
The agreement provides Bifrost with reliable commercial access to Illumina’s high-performance sequencing chemistry, which will be incorporated into the company’s OPS-optimized reagent kits. By combining proven next-generation sequencing chemistry with its proprietary optical pooled screening technology, Bifrost aims to deliver a fully integrated research platform capable of linking complex cellular behaviors to their underlying genetic perturbations with greater speed, scalability, and cost efficiency.
The partnership also reinforces Bifrost’s commercialization strategy as the company prepares for early-access collaborations with leading academic research institutions, biotechnology companies, and pharmaceutical organizations.
Advancing Optical Pooled Screening Technology
Optical pooled screening is an emerging technology designed to address one of the most important challenges in modern functional genomics: identifying how specific genetic changes influence cellular behavior across large populations of individual cells.
Traditional genetic screening methods often require researchers to sacrifice either experimental scale or detailed cellular information. While pooled genetic screens allow scientists to evaluate thousands of genetic perturbations simultaneously, they generally provide limited information about complex cellular phenotypes. Conversely, arrayed screening approaches offer detailed phenotypic analysis but are considerably more labor-intensive, expensive, and difficult to scale.
Optical pooled screening bridges this gap by combining high-content cellular imaging with in situ sequencing techniques that identify the genetic perturbation present within each individual cell.
This enables researchers to directly associate observable cellular characteristics—such as changes in morphology, protein localization, signaling pathways, or disease-related behaviors—with the precise genetic modification responsible for those changes.
As a result, OPS has become an increasingly valuable tool for studying gene function, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic target discovery.
Combining Imaging and Sequencing
The strength of optical pooled screening lies in its ability to integrate advanced microscopy with molecular sequencing.
Researchers first introduce thousands of genetic perturbations into large populations of cells using technologies such as CRISPR gene editing.
Cells are then imaged using high-resolution microscopy to capture detailed phenotypic information.
Following imaging, sequencing identifies which genetic perturbation each cell carries, allowing investigators to correlate genotype with phenotype at single-cell resolution.
This integrated workflow enables scientists to evaluate extremely large genetic libraries while preserving the rich biological information obtained through imaging.
Such capabilities are becoming increasingly important in biomedical research as investigators seek to better understand complex diseases involving multiple interacting genes and cellular pathways.
Illumina’s Sequencing Chemistry Strengthens the Platform
Central to the new agreement is the incorporation of Illumina’s industry-standard sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry into the Bifrost OPS platform.
Sequencing-by-synthesis has become one of the most widely adopted next-generation sequencing technologies worldwide because of its high accuracy, scalability, and reliability.
For years, Illumina’s SBS chemistry has served as the foundation for numerous genomic research applications, including whole genome sequencing, exome sequencing, transcriptomics, epigenetics, and precision medicine studies.
By integrating this proven sequencing technology directly into its OPS reagent kits, Bifrost aims to provide customers with a streamlined workflow that combines imaging, sequencing, and data analysis within a unified research solution.
Reliable sequencing chemistry is particularly important for optical pooled screening because accurate identification of each genetic perturbation is essential for interpreting complex cellular imaging data.
The commercial agreement ensures that Bifrost customers will have consistent access to high-quality sequencing reagents optimized specifically for the company’s platform.
Supporting Broad Commercial Adoption
According to Bifrost Biosystems, securing dependable commercial access to high-performance sequencing chemistry represents a major milestone in transforming optical pooled screening from a specialized academic technique into a broadly deployable commercial technology.
Historically, many advanced functional genomics methods have remained largely confined to leading academic laboratories due to technical complexity, limited reagent availability, and specialized expertise requirements.
Bifrost’s objective is to simplify these workflows by delivering a fully integrated platform that reduces operational barriers while enabling routine adoption across academic research, biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical organizations, and contract research laboratories.
Standardized reagent kits incorporating Illumina’s SBS chemistry are expected to improve consistency, reproducibility, and ease of implementation for researchers using the platform.
Accelerating Functional Genomics Research
The partnership arrives at a time when demand for advanced functional genomics technologies continues to grow rapidly.
Large-scale CRISPR screening has become an essential tool for identifying genes involved in disease development, therapeutic response, drug resistance, immune regulation, and numerous other biological processes.
However, many existing pooled screening technologies rely primarily on survival or enrichment measurements that provide relatively limited biological insight.
Optical pooled screening significantly expands these capabilities by allowing researchers to examine subtle cellular responses that cannot be captured through traditional screening methods.
These include changes in:
- Cell morphology
- Protein localization
- Organelle structure
- Cell signaling pathways
- Cell cycle progression
- Differentiation states
- Immune cell interactions
- Disease-associated phenotypes
By integrating sequencing directly into imaging workflows, investigators gain access to much richer datasets capable of revealing complex biological mechanisms.
Preparing for Early-Access Collaborations
The commercial supply agreement also supports Bifrost’s upcoming early-access program scheduled ahead of the platform’s full commercial launch.
The company plans to collaborate with leading academic research centers and biotechnology partners to validate the platform across diverse research applications.
These collaborations are expected to generate valuable user feedback while demonstrating the technology’s capabilities in real-world research settings.
Working closely with early adopters will also allow Bifrost to optimize workflows, software, reagent kits, and analytical tools before broader commercial availability.
Such partnerships often play a critical role in the successful introduction of advanced life science technologies by ensuring that products meet the evolving needs of scientific researchers.
A Fully Integrated Research Solution
Company leadership emphasized that the Illumina agreement strengthens Bifrost’s ability to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end research platform.
Chief Executive Officer Jonas Jarvius described the agreement as an important validation of the maturity of the company’s technology.
He noted that commercial access to Illumina’s sequencing chemistry enables Bifrost to provide customers with an integrated solution rather than requiring researchers to source sequencing reagents separately.
This integrated approach is expected to simplify laboratory workflows, improve experimental consistency, and accelerate broader adoption of optical pooled screening technology.
For customers, a single platform combining imaging instrumentation, sequencing chemistry, optimized reagents, and analytical software offers important operational advantages compared with assembling multiple independent technologies.
Unlocking Single-Cell Discovery
Bifrost co-founder and board member Dr. Paul Blainey highlighted the scientific significance of integrating industry-leading sequencing chemistry into a purpose-built optical pooled screening platform.
According to Dr. Blainey, combining Illumina’s sequencing technology with Bifrost’s OPS system will enable unprecedented levels of data generation for single-cell perturbation screening.
Single-cell technologies have transformed biological research by allowing investigators to study the unique characteristics of individual cells rather than averaging information across entire cell populations.
This higher level of resolution has proven particularly valuable for understanding cancer biology, developmental processes, immune responses, neurobiology, and rare cell populations that may otherwise remain undetected.
The addition of scalable optical pooled screening further expands these capabilities by connecting cellular imaging directly with genetic perturbation data.
Expanding Applications Across Biomedical Research
Once commercially available, the Bifrost OPS platform could support a wide range of research applications.
Potential uses include:
- Functional genomics research
- CRISPR screening
- Drug target discovery
- Precision medicine studies
- Cancer biology
- Immunology research
- Neuroscience
- Cell therapy development
- Gene editing validation
- Biomarker discovery
Pharmaceutical companies may use the technology to identify genes influencing drug response, while biotechnology organizations could apply it to therapeutic development programs.
Academic laboratories may benefit from its ability to investigate fundamental biological questions involving complex cellular phenotypes at unprecedented scale.
With commercial availability targeted for early 2027, Bifrost Biosystems is positioning its optical pooled screening platform as a next-generation solution for functional genomics and single-cell research.
The new commercial supply agreement with Illumina provides a critical technological foundation by incorporating the industry’s leading sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry into Bifrost’s proprietary workflow. This integration is expected to enhance platform reliability, simplify laboratory operations, and provide researchers with a standardized, end-to-end solution for linking genetic perturbations to complex cellular phenotypes.
As life science research increasingly focuses on understanding biology at the single-cell level, technologies capable of combining high-content imaging with scalable genomic analysis are expected to play an increasingly important role. Through its collaboration with Illumina and its planned partnerships with leading research institutions, Bifrost aims to accelerate the adoption of optical pooled screening and enable scientists to generate deeper biological insights that could ultimately advance drug discovery, disease research, and precision medicine.
About Optical Pooled Screening
Optical pooled screening is rapidly emerging as a powerful tool for functional genomics, enabling researchers to measure complex cellular phenotypes and link them to the responsible genetic perturbation. Bifrost’s OPS platform is designed to dramatically expand access to this capability by combining advanced imaging, integrated fluidics, optimized chemistry and streamlined analytical pipelines.
With Illumina’s proven sequencing chemistry, Bifrost can now deliver reagent kits optimized for robust in situ genotyping workflows performed on its OPS system.
“Optical pooled screening has long been limited not by its biological potential, but by the practical challenges of executing reliable in situ readouts at scale,” said Paul Blainey, Co-Founder of Bifrost Biosystems and a pioneer in the development of OPS. “Standardizing access to high-quality sequencing chemistry within an integrated workflow is an important step toward making OPS a routine and scalable tool for biological discovery.”
Furthering its leadership position, Bifrost Biosystems is currently preparing for broader early-access deployments of the OPS platform to select research institutions and biotechnology companies.
About Bifrost Biosystems
Bifrost Biosystems is developing next-generation instrumentation and workflows for optical pooled screening, enabling researchers to link single-cell phenotypes to genotypes at unprecedented scale. The company’s platform integrates advanced imaging, microfluidics, and sequencing-based readouts to democratize high-content functional genomics.