RTP company advancing sample prep through microfluidics technology

A Research Triangle Park startup is making progress in its quest to revolutionize sample preparation – a monotonous, time-consuming process that’s essential in the laboratory.

Redbud Labs, with 21 employees in the Frontier complex in RTP, has developed a sample prep platform that’s now available commercially. Unlike robotic systems often used to manage sample prep in the lab, Redbud relies on microfluidics technology to make smaller, more nimble devices.

“Sample prep is a mature industry,” said Ricky Spero, the company’s CEO. “We’ve developed the first new automation platform for sample prep in the last 20 years.

“Everybody hates sample prep,” he added, in a recent interview. “We think that’s a problem we can solve by providing the right tool in the right place. Even big labs that have a lot of automation equipment have workflows that could benefit from our tool.”

Microfluidic chip

Sample prep involves using a representative sample of a substance as a first step in lab analysis. It’s done in a variety of settings and industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to food science. Sample prep helps ensure more accurate results by removing unwanted substances, standardizing samples and otherwise making sure the substance – solid, liquid, or gas – is suitable for testing.

Redbud has introduced its microfluidics sample prep platform, called Redbud NA1, for use in research and surveillance for infectious diseases. At the platform’s core is a chemistry-agnostic microfluidic chip Redbud developed, called STR BeadPak.

With microfluidics, tiny amounts of liquid are analyzed in small chambers. One common application is known as lab-on-a-chip, which integrates lab functions on a small physical structure.

In 2024, Redbud made the NA1 available to select labs before rolling the platform out commercially. One such lab, the Wadsworth Center in Albany, N.Y. – the public health research lab for the state of New York – presented a poster at an American Society of Microbiology symposium in October 2024, highlighting Redbud NA1’s performance, convenience and small footprint.

Origins at UNC-Chapel Hill

Redbud started in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Richard Superfine, a professor of applied physical sciences, was studying the physics of how cilia, or hair-like extensions of cells, help remove mucus from the lungs. Superfine and his team considered cilia a good model for how fluids could be moved in small spaces. They developed synthetic cilia and explored ways to use it in microfluidic systems.

“Cilia are ancient structures, pre-dating mammals, and they’re found across biology,” Superfine said in a story published by UNC. “I saw their potential as a model for fluid dynamics and wanted to create something that could replicate their function.”

Spero was a graduate student in Superfine’s lab. He co-founded Redbud with Superfine and Russell Taylor, who is on the company’s leadership team. Spero has been CEO since 2015.

Over the past decade, Redbud has secured Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health, an investment from South Carolina-based venture capital fund VentureSouth, and angel investors. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center also has provided small business research loans to the company.

Spero said the company is working to build on the commercial launch of Redbud NA1.

“Our focus now is on infectious disease surveillance, but we’ll be adding applications over time,” he said.