VeraFab
Single-cell analysis · anywhere

The measurement modern biology runs on — wherever the science happens.

We're rebuilding cytometry from first principles.

Central lab → point of need Hours → minutes One standardised answer, everywhere
Become a design partner → See how it works ↓ Watch the film · 1:40
The film

A hundred seconds on why the instrument has to change.

Lab instruments were built around a person reading a screen. But models now design experiments faster than labs can run them, and the instrument has become the slowest part of the loop. Here's what we're changing, and why we started with the flow cytometer.

Narrated overview. Footage is illustrative — the chip and reader are in design; the analysis software is live today.

Read the transcript

Look at any instrument in a lab. It was built for a person. A screen to read. Knobs to turn. A trained scientist to decide what the data means.

That made sense. For decades, a human was always the one asking the question.

That's changing. Models can now design experiments faster than a lab can run them. And the instrument has become the slowest part of the loop.

Samples queue for a shared machine. Someone draws the gates by hand. The results come back in a shape built for a person to read, not for a model to learn from.

So the loop stalls. Not because the science is hard, but because the hardware was built for a different user.

Both layers need rethinking. The hardware and the software, for a lab with AI in the loop.

We're starting with single-cell analysis. We're redesigning the flow cytometer.

Today that's a bench of lasers, mirrors and analog optics. Six figures, a dedicated room, a specialist to run it.

We're moving it onto semiconductor physics. Silicon photonics for the optics. Microfluidics to line the cells up, one at a time. And AI to design the instrument itself, then read what comes back.

The target is the marker depth of a spectral cytometer costing £350,000 — on a chip, in a box that sits on a bench.

Our analysis software is live today. The instrument is in design.

If you're curious, get in touch. verafab.bio

Our conviction

The world we're building toward.

Every advance in modern biology comes back to one question: what are these cells, and what are they doing? Cytometry answers it better than almost anything we have — but today that answer lives in central labs, run by specialists. Biology has moved on: into manufacturing suites, automated pipelines, and clinics far from any core facility. The measurement should go with it — the same trusted answer, delivered on the spot.

Everywhere, not only the core labThe measurement travels to the science, not the other way around.
Anyone, not only the specialistInsert, run, and read a standardised result.
The same answer, every timeComparable by construction, across every unit and every site.
The opportunity

A brilliant measurement, ready to reach further.

Cytometry is indispensable across research, biotech and therapeutics, and today's analysers do exactly what they were designed to do — deliver rich, high-quality single-cell data in the central lab, in expert hands. The opportunity isn't to replace that. It's to extend the same capability to all the places that now need it and can't easily reach it.

Built for the central lab. Powerful shared analysers live in core facilities; samples travel to the machine and results return on the lab's schedule.
Built for the specialist. Daily QC, warm-up, calibration and manual compensation call for expert hands — hard to place at the bench or in a suite.
Hard to compare. Settings and manual gating differ between machines and sites, so results are difficult to pool, standardise or automate.
Not yet shaped for automation or AI. Results arrive as files for expert review rather than machine-ready data, so they're hard to feed to pipelines or models.
Costly to scale. Turnaround in hours and cost per run keep cytometry centralised — just as many workflows now need it on the spot.
The product

The whole cytometer, reborn as a cartridge and a reader.

Belief is only worth as much as what you build from it. So we rebuilt single-cell analysis — optics, fluidics and analysis together — into a sealed, single-use chip and a compact reader. No shared analyser, specialist operator or central lab required. Load the sample; standardised single-cell data comes back.

Cartridge

VeraChip

Single-use consumable. The whole assay and cell-handling path on one chip — microfluidics and photonics built in.

Reader

VeraCell

Compact, benchtop-to-field, factory-calibrated. No alignment; daily QC runs automatically and produces a report — insert and run.

Software

VeraOS

Automated analysis with natural-language control — ask questions and drive the analysis in plain language, and get standardised, machine-readable data the moment the run ends.

sample in · no manual handling · standardised answer out
Software · early preview

A first look at the software.

The instrument is still being built — but you can already get a feel for how it will work. We've put an early version of the analysis layer online as a preview: upload an .fcs file, describe what you want in plain English, and watch standardised results come back. A window into the software that will one day live inside every reader — not the finished product, but a real glimpse of where we're heading.

Ask in plain EnglishDescribe the analysis — “gate singlets on FSC-A vs FSC-H, then show CD45 vs SSC” — and let it run. No scripting, no manual gating.
Real cytometry under the hoodIt runs on actual FCS data — parsing, compensation and transforms, real plots and tables — a working preview, not a mockup, even as it keeps evolving.
A taste of standardised outputResults come back machine-readable and portable — an early feel for the “same answer, everywhere” the instrument is built to deliver.
Try the preview → Early access, evolving fast — runs in your browser.

Preview screenshot — populations and figures shown are illustrative.

What it unlocks

Powerful for the expert. Effortless for everyone else.

One goal shapes every decision: take the most useful measurement in biology and put it within everyone's reach.

Field-readySmall, sealed and rugged. Runs at the bench, in a manufacturing suite, or beside the patient — as well as in a core facility.
Standardised by constructionIdentical cartridge and factory-calibrated reader give the same result on every unit and every site, with no manual compensation.
FastNo warm-up or manual gating; daily QC runs automatically and is reported. Minutes from sample to a standardised answer.
Low-cost, so it scalesAI-driven design keeps cost low, so cytometry can be deployed broadly rather than shared as a scarce resource.
Automation-readyNo specialist in the loop. Plugs into robotic workflows and pipelines as a module — hands-free.
Open, machine-readable dataSelf-describing, standardised output that's portable and easy to pool — no black box, no lock-in.
The engine

The engine underneath — and why the result holds up.

You can't reach this size, cost and consistency by shrinking a benchtop analyser — it takes designing the whole instrument differently. That's what our engine does: AI co-designs the instrument — optics, fluidics, detection and manufacturability together — bringing three hard disciplines into one system: microfluidics, integrated photonics, and AI, validated in silico before a part is ever built. You don't need to see the machinery to trust the answer — but that's the quiet engineering behind every unit.

Standardised by design — comparability engineered in, never calibrated back by an operator.
Calibrated for life — alignment set in fabrication, so every unit reads identically, with no drift.
Built for automation & AI — machine-readable output made to feed pipelines and models directly.
One platform, many products — cytometry is where we start. Not where we stop.
For design partners

What you get for building this with us.

We're taking on a small number of design partners — labs, biotechs and therapeutics teams who'll shape the product on their own workflows before it's fixed. Here's the exchange.

01 · Influence

A hand on the roadmap.

Shape the panels, the data format and what gets built first, while it's all still soft. Your workflow sets the priorities.

02 · Evidence

Validation on your own samples.

A joint concordance study on your assays and your workflow — indicative figures become real numbers you can put your name to.

03 · Economics

Your cost case, modelled.

See the turnaround and cost picture for your own site — panels, tube counts and service-contract savings, every input editable. Open the savings calculator →

Who we're looking for: flow-cytometry labs, cell & gene therapy and bioprocessing teams, and translational groups running panels day to day.

Design partners & early access

Let's put single-cell analysis in the hands of everyone who needs it.

We're early, and we're building this with the people who'll use it. We're here to learn, and to find early-access partners and co-designers.

Book a 20-minute call →
prathap@verafab.bio